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Blog Beginner Guides How To Make a Good Presentation [A Complete Guide]

How To Make a Good Presentation [A Complete Guide]

Written by: Krystle Wong Jul 20, 2023

A top-notch presentation possesses the power to drive action. From winning stakeholders over and conveying a powerful message to securing funding — your secret weapon lies within the realm of creating an effective presentation .  

Being an excellent presenter isn’t confined to the boardroom. Whether you’re delivering a presentation at work, pursuing an academic career, involved in a non-profit organization or even a student, nailing the presentation game is a game-changer.

In this article, I’ll cover the top qualities of compelling presentations and walk you through a step-by-step guide on how to give a good presentation. Here’s a little tip to kick things off: for a headstart, check out Venngage’s collection of free presentation templates . They are fully customizable, and the best part is you don’t need professional design skills to make them shine!

These valuable presentation tips cater to individuals from diverse professional backgrounds, encompassing business professionals, sales and marketing teams, educators, trainers, students, researchers, non-profit organizations, public speakers and presenters. 

No matter your field or role, these tips for presenting will equip you with the skills to deliver effective presentations that leave a lasting impression on any audience.

Click to jump ahead:

What are the 10 qualities of a good presentation?

Step-by-step guide on how to prepare an effective presentation, 9 effective techniques to deliver a memorable presentation, faqs on making a good presentation, how to create a presentation with venngage in 5 steps.

When it comes to giving an engaging presentation that leaves a lasting impression, it’s not just about the content — it’s also about how you deliver it. Wondering what makes a good presentation? Well, the best presentations I’ve seen consistently exhibit these 10 qualities:

1. Clear structure

No one likes to get lost in a maze of information. Organize your thoughts into a logical flow, complete with an introduction, main points and a solid conclusion. A structured presentation helps your audience follow along effortlessly, leaving them with a sense of satisfaction at the end.

Regardless of your presentation style , a quality presentation starts with a clear roadmap. Browse through Venngage’s template library and select a presentation template that aligns with your content and presentation goals. Here’s a good presentation example template with a logical layout that includes sections for the introduction, main points, supporting information and a conclusion: 

2. Engaging opening

Hook your audience right from the start with an attention-grabbing statement, a fascinating question or maybe even a captivating anecdote. Set the stage for a killer presentation!

The opening moments of your presentation hold immense power – check out these 15 ways to start a presentation to set the stage and captivate your audience.

3. Relevant content

Make sure your content aligns with their interests and needs. Your audience is there for a reason, and that’s to get valuable insights. Avoid fluff and get straight to the point, your audience will be genuinely excited.

4. Effective visual aids

Picture this: a slide with walls of text and tiny charts, yawn! Visual aids should be just that—aiding your presentation. Opt for clear and visually appealing slides, engaging images and informative charts that add value and help reinforce your message.

With Venngage, visualizing data takes no effort at all. You can import data from CSV or Google Sheets seamlessly and create stunning charts, graphs and icon stories effortlessly to showcase your data in a captivating and impactful way.

5. Clear and concise communication

Keep your language simple, and avoid jargon or complicated terms. Communicate your ideas clearly, so your audience can easily grasp and retain the information being conveyed. This can prevent confusion and enhance the overall effectiveness of the message. 

6. Engaging delivery

Spice up your presentation with a sprinkle of enthusiasm! Maintain eye contact, use expressive gestures and vary your tone of voice to keep your audience glued to the edge of their seats. A touch of charisma goes a long way!

7. Interaction and audience engagement

Turn your presentation into an interactive experience — encourage questions, foster discussions and maybe even throw in a fun activity. Engaged audiences are more likely to remember and embrace your message.

Transform your slides into an interactive presentation with Venngage’s dynamic features like pop-ups, clickable icons and animated elements. Engage your audience with interactive content that lets them explore and interact with your presentation for a truly immersive experience.

8. Effective storytelling

Who doesn’t love a good story? Weaving relevant anecdotes, case studies or even a personal story into your presentation can captivate your audience and create a lasting impact. Stories build connections and make your message memorable.

A great presentation background is also essential as it sets the tone, creates visual interest and reinforces your message. Enhance the overall aesthetics of your presentation with these 15 presentation background examples and captivate your audience’s attention.

9. Well-timed pacing

Pace your presentation thoughtfully with well-designed presentation slides, neither rushing through nor dragging it out. Respect your audience’s time and ensure you cover all the essential points without losing their interest.

10. Strong conclusion

Last impressions linger! Summarize your main points and leave your audience with a clear takeaway. End your presentation with a bang , a call to action or an inspiring thought that resonates long after the conclusion.

In-person presentations aside, acing a virtual presentation is of paramount importance in today’s digital world. Check out this guide to learn how you can adapt your in-person presentations into virtual presentations . 

Preparing an effective presentation starts with laying a strong foundation that goes beyond just creating slides and notes. One of the quickest and best ways to make a presentation would be with the help of a good presentation software . 

Otherwise, let me walk you to how to prepare for a presentation step by step and unlock the secrets of crafting a professional presentation that sets you apart.

1. Understand the audience and their needs

Before you dive into preparing your masterpiece, take a moment to get to know your target audience. Tailor your presentation to meet their needs and expectations , and you’ll have them hooked from the start!

2. Conduct thorough research on the topic

Time to hit the books (or the internet)! Don’t skimp on the research with your presentation materials — dive deep into the subject matter and gather valuable insights . The more you know, the more confident you’ll feel in delivering your presentation.

3. Organize the content with a clear structure

No one wants to stumble through a chaotic mess of information. Outline your presentation with a clear and logical flow. Start with a captivating introduction, follow up with main points that build on each other and wrap it up with a powerful conclusion that leaves a lasting impression.

Delivering an effective business presentation hinges on captivating your audience, and Venngage’s professionally designed business presentation templates are tailor-made for this purpose. With thoughtfully structured layouts, these templates enhance your message’s clarity and coherence, ensuring a memorable and engaging experience for your audience members.

Don’t want to build your presentation layout from scratch? pick from these 5 foolproof presentation layout ideas that won’t go wrong. 

4. Develop visually appealing and supportive visual aids

Spice up your presentation with eye-catching visuals! Create slides that complement your message, not overshadow it. Remember, a picture is worth a thousand words, but that doesn’t mean you need to overload your slides with text.

Well-chosen designs create a cohesive and professional look, capturing your audience’s attention and enhancing the overall effectiveness of your message. Here’s a list of carefully curated PowerPoint presentation templates and great background graphics that will significantly influence the visual appeal and engagement of your presentation.

5. Practice, practice and practice

Practice makes perfect — rehearse your presentation and arrive early to your presentation to help overcome stage fright. Familiarity with your material will boost your presentation skills and help you handle curveballs with ease.

6. Seek feedback and make necessary adjustments

Don’t be afraid to ask for help and seek feedback from friends and colleagues. Constructive criticism can help you identify blind spots and fine-tune your presentation to perfection.

With Venngage’s real-time collaboration feature , receiving feedback and editing your presentation is a seamless process. Group members can access and work on the presentation simultaneously and edit content side by side in real-time. Changes will be reflected immediately to the entire team, promoting seamless teamwork.

7. Prepare for potential technical or logistical issues

Prepare for the unexpected by checking your equipment, internet connection and any other potential hiccups. If you’re worried that you’ll miss out on any important points, you could always have note cards prepared. Remember to remain focused and rehearse potential answers to anticipated questions.

8. Fine-tune and polish your presentation

As the big day approaches, give your presentation one last shine. Review your talking points, practice how to present a presentation and make any final tweaks. Deep breaths — you’re on the brink of delivering a successful presentation!

In competitive environments, persuasive presentations set individuals and organizations apart. To brush up on your presentation skills, read these guides on how to make a persuasive presentation and tips to presenting effectively . 

Whether you’re an experienced presenter or a novice, the right techniques will let your presentation skills soar to new heights!

From public speaking hacks to interactive elements and storytelling prowess, these 9 effective presentation techniques will empower you to leave a lasting impression on your audience and make your presentations unforgettable.

1. Confidence and positive body language

Positive body language instantly captivates your audience, making them believe in your message as much as you do. Strengthen your stage presence and own that stage like it’s your second home! Stand tall, shoulders back and exude confidence. 

2. Eye contact with the audience

Break down that invisible barrier and connect with your audience through their eyes. Maintaining eye contact when giving a presentation builds trust and shows that you’re present and engaged with them.

3. Effective use of hand gestures and movement

A little movement goes a long way! Emphasize key points with purposeful gestures and don’t be afraid to walk around the stage. Your energy will be contagious!

4. Utilize storytelling techniques

Weave the magic of storytelling into your presentation. Share relatable anecdotes, inspiring success stories or even personal experiences that tug at the heartstrings of your audience. Adjust your pitch, pace and volume to match the emotions and intensity of the story. Varying your speaking voice adds depth and enhances your stage presence.

5. Incorporate multimedia elements

Spice up your presentation with a dash of visual pizzazz! Use slides, images and video clips to add depth and clarity to your message. Just remember, less is more—don’t overwhelm them with information overload. 

Turn your presentations into an interactive party! Involve your audience with questions, polls or group activities. When they actively participate, they become invested in your presentation’s success. Bring your design to life with animated elements. Venngage allows you to apply animations to icons, images and text to create dynamic and engaging visual content.

6. Utilize humor strategically

Laughter is the best medicine—and a fantastic presentation enhancer! A well-placed joke or lighthearted moment can break the ice and create a warm atmosphere , making your audience more receptive to your message.

7. Practice active listening and respond to feedback

Be attentive to your audience’s reactions and feedback. If they have questions or concerns, address them with genuine interest and respect. Your responsiveness builds rapport and shows that you genuinely care about their experience.

8. Apply the 10-20-30 rule

Apply the 10-20-30 presentation rule and keep it short, sweet and impactful! Stick to ten slides, deliver your presentation within 20 minutes and use a 30-point font to ensure clarity and focus. Less is more, and your audience will thank you for it!

9. Implement the 5-5-5 rule

Simplicity is key. Limit each slide to five bullet points, with only five words per bullet point and allow each slide to remain visible for about five seconds. This rule keeps your presentation concise and prevents information overload.

Simple presentations are more engaging because they are easier to follow. Summarize your presentations and keep them simple with Venngage’s gallery of simple presentation templates and ensure that your message is delivered effectively across your audience.

1. How to start a presentation?

To kick off your presentation effectively, begin with an attention-grabbing statement or a powerful quote. Introduce yourself, establish credibility and clearly state the purpose and relevance of your presentation.

2. How to end a presentation?

For a strong conclusion, summarize your talking points and key takeaways. End with a compelling call to action or a thought-provoking question and remember to thank your audience and invite any final questions or interactions.

3. How to make a presentation interactive?

To make your presentation interactive, encourage questions and discussion throughout your talk. Utilize multimedia elements like videos or images and consider including polls, quizzes or group activities to actively involve your audience.

In need of inspiration for your next presentation? I’ve got your back! Pick from these 120+ presentation ideas, topics and examples to get started. 

Creating a stunning presentation with Venngage is a breeze with our user-friendly drag-and-drop editor and professionally designed templates for all your communication needs. 

Here’s how to make a presentation in just 5 simple steps with the help of Venngage:

Step 1: Sign up for Venngage for free using your email, Gmail or Facebook account or simply log in to access your account. 

Step 2: Pick a design from our selection of free presentation templates (they’re all created by our expert in-house designers).

Step 3: Make the template your own by customizing it to fit your content and branding. With Venngage’s intuitive drag-and-drop editor, you can easily modify text, change colors and adjust the layout to create a unique and eye-catching design.

Step 4: Elevate your presentation by incorporating captivating visuals. You can upload your images or choose from Venngage’s vast library of high-quality photos, icons and illustrations. 

Step 5: Upgrade to a premium or business account to export your presentation in PDF and print it for in-person presentations or share it digitally for free!

By following these five simple steps, you’ll have a professionally designed and visually engaging presentation ready in no time. With Venngage’s user-friendly platform, your presentation is sure to make a lasting impression. So, let your creativity flow and get ready to shine in your next presentation!

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Blog > How to structure a good PowerPoint Presentation

How to structure a good PowerPoint Presentation

08.09.21   •  #powerpoint #tips.

When creating presentations, it is particularly important that they are well organized and have a consistent structure.

A logical structure helps the audience to follow you and to remember the core information as best as possible. It is also important for the presenter, as a good presentation structure helps to keep calm, to stay on the topic and to avoid awkward pauses.

But what does such a structure actually look like? Here we show you how to best organize your presentation and what a good structure looks like.

Plan your presentation

Before you start creating your presentation, you should always brainstorm. Think about the topic and write all your ideas down. Then think about the message you want to communicate, what your goal is and what you want your audience to remember at the end.

Think about who your audience is so that you can address them in the best possible way. One possibility is to start your presentation with a few polls to get to know your audience better. Based on the results, you can then adapt your presentation a little. Use the poll function of SlideLizard and have all the answers at a glance. SlideLizard makes it possible to integrate the polls directly into your PowerPoint presentation which helps you to avoid annoying switching between presentation and interaction tool. You can keep an eye on the results while the votes come in and then decide whether you want to share them or not.

• an informative
• an entertaining
• an inspiring
• or a persuasive presentation?

Typical Presentation Structure

The basic structure of a presentation is actually always the same and should consist of:

Introduction

Make sure that the structure of your presentation is not too complicated. The simpler it is, the better the audience can follow.

Personal Introduction

It is best to start your presentation by briefly introducing yourself which helps to build a connection with your audience right away.

Introduce the topic

Then introduce the topic, state the purpose of the presentation and provide a brief outline of the main points you will be addressing.

Mention the length

In the introduction, mention the approximate length of the talk and then also make sure you stick to it.

The introduction should be no longer than two slides and provide a good overview of the topic.

Icebreaker Polls

According to studies, people in the audience only have an average attention span of 10 minutes, which is why it is important to increase their attention right at the beginning and to arouse the audience's interest. You could make a good start with a few icebreaker polls for example. They lighten the mood right at the beginning and you can secure your audience's attention from the start.

For example, you could use SlideLizard to have all the answers at a glance and share them with your audience. In addition, the audience can try out how the polls work and already know how it works if you include more polls in the main part.

Get to know your audience

As mentioned earlier, it is always useful to think about who your audience actually is. Ask them questions at the beginning about how well they already know the topic of your presentation. Use SlideLizard for this so that you have a clear overview about the answers. You can use both single- and multiple-choice questions or also open questions and display their results as a WordCloud in your presentation, for example.

Include a quote

To make the beginning (or the end) of your presentation more exciting, it is always a good idea to include a quote. We have selected some powerful quotes for PowerPoint presentations for you.

Present your topic

The main part of a presentation should explain the topic well, state facts, justify them and give examples. Keep all the promises you made earlier in the introduction.

Length and Structure

The main part should make up about 70% of the presentation and also include a clear structure. Explain your ideas in detail and build them up logically. It should be organized chronologically, by priority or by topic. There should be a smooth transition between the individual issues. However, it is also important to use phrases that make it clear that a new topic is starting. We have listed some useful phrases for presentations here.

Visualize data and statistics and show pictures to underline facts. If you are still looking for good images, we have selected 5 sources of free images for you here.

Focus on the essentials

Focus on what is most important and summarize a bit. You don't have to say everything about a topic because your audience won’t remember everything either. Avoid complicated sentence structure, because if the audience does not understand something, they will not be able to read it again.

Make your presentation interactive

Make your presentation interactive to keep the attention of your audience. Use SlideLizard to include polls in your presentation, where your audience can vote directly from their smartphone and discuss the answers as soon as you received all votes. Here you can also find more tips for increasing audience engagement.

Repeat the main points

The conclusion should contain a summary of the most important key points. Repeat the main points you have made, summarize what the audience should have learned and explain how the new information can help in the future.

Include a Q&A part

Include a Q&A part at the end to make sure you don't leave any questions open. It's a good idea to use tools like SlideLizard for it. Your audience can ask anonymous questions and if there is not enough time, you can give them the answers afterwards. You can read more about the right way to do a question slide in PowerPoint here.

Get Feedback

It is also important to get feedback on your presentation at the end to keep improving. With SlideLizard you can ask your audience for anonymous feedback through star ratings, number ratings or open texts directly after your presentation. You can then export the responses and analyse them later in Excel.

Presentation style

Depending on the type of presentation you give, the structure will always be slightly different. We have selected a few different presentation styles and their structure for you.

Short Presentation

If you are one of many presenters on the day, you will only have a very limited time to present your idea and to convince your audience. It is very important to stand out with your presentation.

So you need to summarize your ideas as briefly as possible and probably should not need more than 3-5 slides.

Problem Solving Presentation

Start your presentation by explaining a problem and giving a short overview of it.

Then go into the problem a little more, providing both intellectual and emotional arguments for the seriousness of the problem. You should spend about the first 25% of your presentation on the problem.

After that, you should spend about 50% of your presentation proposing a solution and explaining it in detail.

In the last 25%, describe what benefits this solution will bring to your audience and ask them to take a simple but relevant action that relates to the problem being discussed.

Tell a Story

A great way to build an emotional connection with the audience is to structure a presentation like a story.

In the introduction, introduce a character who has to deal with a conflict. In the main part, tell how he tries to solve his problem but fails again and again. In the end, he manages to find a solution and wins.

Stories have the power to win customers, align colleagues and motivate employees. They’re the most compelling platform we have for managing imaginations. - Nancy Duarte / HBR Guide to Persuasive Presentations

Make a demonstration

Use the demonstration structure to show how a product works. First talk about a need or a problem that has to be solved.

Then explain how the product will help solve the problem and try to convince your audience of the need for your product.

Spend the end clarifying where and when the product can be purchased.

Chronological structure

When you have something historical to tell, it is always good to use a chronological structure. You always have to ask yourself what happens next.

To make it more interesting and exciting, it is a good idea to start by telling the end of something and after that you explain how you got there. This way you make the audience curious and you can gain their attention faster.

Nancy Duarte TED Talk

Nancy Duarte is a speaker and presentation design expert. She gives speeches all over the world, trying to improve the power of public presentations.

In her famous TED Talk "The Secret Structure of Great Talks" she dissects famous speeches such as Steve Jobs' iPhone launch speech and Martin Luther King's "I have a dream" speech. In doing so, she found out that each presentation is made up of 4 parts:

• What could be
• A moment to remember
• Promise of “New Bliss”

Related articles

About the author.

Helena Reitinger

Helena supports the SlideLizard team in marketing and design. She loves to express her creativity in texts and graphics.

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The big SlideLizard presentation glossary

Slide transitions.

Slide transitions are visual effects which appear in PowerPoint when one slide moves to the next. There are many different transitions, like for example fade and dissolve.

Solution Presentation

A solution has already been found during a solution presentation. The only thing that remains is to find a solution on how to realize the decision.

Learning on Demand

Learning on Demand means that the content is available extactly when it's needed by the learner

Virtual Reality

With Virtual Reality people can practice situations and important processes in a virtual room by putting on special digital glasses. They can influence what happens themselves.

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How to Structure a PowerPoint Presentation

content creator

Helen Colman See full bio →

Think of a movie that has breathtaking special effects but no storyline. Does it have any chances of becoming a blockbuster? Of course not. The same is true with a PowerPoint presentation. No matter how beautiful the visuals of your slide deck are, it will never be a success if it doesn’t follow a logically sound structure.

In this post, we’ll cover the typical presentation structure in PowerPoint – what sections it should include – and provide some practical tips on how to arrange the slides and implement these ideas technically. Use these practical guidelines to organize your slides in a clear and simple way and save time on their development. But first, let’s see why your PPT deck needs to be guided by a structure.

Why Is Structuring a PowerPoint Presentation Important?

A sound deck structure is crucial for audience understanding. When the information is presented logically, it’s much easier for a viewer to get the message. The research supports this idea – it shows that people are 40% more likely to retain structured information than unstructured information.

If you’re going to accompany your slideshow with an oral presentation, a good structure is also important for you as a speaker. It will help you feel confident, stay on topic, and avoid any awkward silences, so you’re more likely to win your audience over. 

What Is the Typical PowerPoint Presentation Structure?

A good PowerPoint presentation always has a story to tell and, like any narration, it consists of three basic parts: introduction, body, and conclusion. Let’s look at each part in greater detail with some examples. 

Introduction

The introduction sets the tone for the entire presentation and explains what the audience will come away with after viewing it. Here are the multiple slides you may need to add in the intro: 

This is the main part of your presentation, which should keep the promises you made in the introduction. This is where you explain your topic and present all your information. 

Depending on the nature of your presentation, divide it into segments/points. Arrange your points in a logical order and then provide information to support each of them. There are many different ways to organize your key points, for example:

• Number your points according to their priority (1, 2, 3, …)
• Place the points in a time frame (past, present, future)
• Use narration (tell a story from beginning to end)
• Present the points with a problem-solution dynamic (state a problem, describe its impact, offer ways to solve the issue)

A good conclusion summarizes the key points you made or highlights what the audience should have learned. It clarifies the general purpose of your presentation and reinforces the reason for viewing it. Here are the slides you may want to include:

• Summary. List what goals your audience have achieved, what knowledge they got, and how this information can help them in the future.
• Conclusion. Here you can thank your audience for viewing the presentation.

Tips for Structuring a Presentation in PowerPoint

Now that you know which parts a typical presentation should consist of, let’s see how to structure it in PowerPoint. 

1. Combine slides into sections

When working with a large PowerPoint presentation (PPT), you can create sections that can be collapsed and expanded. This will help you keep presentation slides organized and facilitate navigation in editing mode. To do that, follow these steps:

• To shift a section, right-click on its name and use the Move Section Up and Move Section Down options.
• To collapse or expand a certain section, click on the collapse icon to the left of the section name. You can also minimize and maximize all sections at once by right-clicking on the section name and choosing Collapse All or Expand All .

As well, you can access these settings by choosing Slide Sorter under the VIEW tab.

This kind of segmentation is a great way to overview the logical flow of your slides all at once and see if there are any changes required. For example, you may decide to break one slide into two or three, or the other way around.

2. Use the Outline View

One other way to structure a PowerPoint presentation in the editing mode is to use Outline View . You can choose it from the VIEW tab.

This view doesn’t display sections, but it shows the title and main text of each slide, which can give you a quick overview of the presentation contents. Here you can go through the entire text and edit it instantly. You can also work with text (on the left) and slides (on the right) simultaneously, as the latter is shown on the right side of your screen.

Note that, to be displayed in an outline, text needs to be typed in a text placeholder, not a text box . A text placeholder is a box with the words “Click to add text” or “Click to add title”, and it appears when you choose a standard layout.

You can also use Outline View to promote bullet text to titles and the other way around. To do that, right-click on a relevant title or text and select the Promote or Demote options.

Be attentive about demoting a title, as this will delete the original slide and move its title and text to the adjacent slide.

PowerPoint only allows users to promote and demote text, not entire slides. Therefore, there’s no possibility to change the hierarchical order of slides.

3. Create a table of contents

All the aforementioned tips help you organize a presentation when formatting it. However, it’s crucial that your viewers can easily navigate through entire presentation too. One sure way to provide them with this opportunity is to create an interactive and structured table of contents.

Though there’s no native automatic outline in PowerPoint, it can be created manually:

• Press Ctrl+A to select all the names, and Ctrl+C to copy them. 
• Then Press Ctrl+V to paste the copied titles on the desired slide. In case there are too many titles and they don’t fit onto a single page, you can divide the table of contents into two columns or place it on two slides.

You’ll need to repeat this procedure to link all the chapters to corresponding slides. For more information, read this step-by-step guide on how to add a hyperlink in PowerPoint .

Now all the chapters can be accessed from a single table of contents, which is very convenient. However, you will also need to link them back to that unifying page. You can do this by inserting an Action Button on every slide of your presentation in Slide Master mode:

Now there is a single page from which all the other pages can be easily accessed. As well, it’s possible to go back to the table of contents at any time with the intuitive Home button.

Depending on the size of your presentation, the time it takes to create an interactive outline may vary, as you will need to add hyperlinks to every chapter manually. Be aware that if you rename a slide or simply delete it, these changes will not be automatically registered in the table of contents. For example, if you delete a slide, its title will still be displayed in the table of contents, but clicking on it won’t lead the viewer to another point in the presentation.

This is what our sample presentation looks like:

A Better Way to Structure a PowerPoint Presentation

Creating a table of contents manually might be fine for a small presentation, but if you have 122 slides, it would require too much time and energy to do so. That’s why, instead of manually creating a table of contents, we took advantage of iSpring Suite and simply enabled the automatic outline.  

iSpring Suite

Fully-stocked eLearning authoring toolkit for PowerPoint. No training required to start!

Note: iSpring Suite turns slides into HTML5 format, so your audience can view them online, right in their browsers. 

As you can see, the new presentation has a pop-up outline and a navigation panel, which make it possible to move to any slide at any time without leaving the slide show mode. 

How to set up navigation

To create navigation in your presentation, follow these simple steps:

• Get a free trial of iSpring Suite.

• When you’ve configured the Slide Properties settings, click on Save & Close in the upper-left corner.

How to configure an outline

Whereas PowerPoint requires the outline to be designed manually, iSpring Suite has already prepared it for you. At the same time, you don’t have to stick with the standard outline template, as you can easily customize the player’s final look and feel:

We recommend leaving Enable Search marked, as this will allow viewers to search for any content at any time, including the texts on the slides. This is especially useful for large presentations with a lot of text.

If you have previously arranged slides into multiple levels in the Slide Properties, then leave Multilevel outline marked. That way, the outline will display the nesting structure of the presentation, facilitating navigation. You can learn more about the other outline options here .

• When you have finished configuring the player, click on Apply & Close in the upper-left corner.
• Now you can publish your enhanced presentation either to HTML5, to make it easily accessible via browser on any device, or MP4 video format. If you’re going to upload your presentation to an LMS, you can publish it to any eLearning format: SCORM, AICC, Tin Can, or cmi5. 

While a standard PowerPoint slideshow is straightforward and limited, iSpring Suite saves viewers from having to follow a strict slide order. An interactive and searchable outline allows non-linear navigation, where any information can be accessed at any time at a glance.

Also read : → How to Convert PowerPoint to MP4 Video

Also read : →  How To Record Presentations With Audio

Another perk

iSpring Suite comes with Content Library , which provides a great collection of presentation templates and allows you to create professional-looking presentations in a matter of minutes. Each template includes basic course elements: a title slide, a table of contents, chapters, a timeline, and info slides. Organize them in the order you prefer, populate them with your texts and images, and your presentation is ready to go.

We hope this article will help you develop an ideal structure for your PowerPoint presentation and do this quickly and easily. Captivate your audience with a powerful and persuasive presentation!

Do you have any other insights on how to simplify PowerPoint slides design? Please share them in the comment section. We’d like to hear from you. 

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How to Sequence Your Presentation

There are many ways to organize your presentation . The choices you make seriously impact the success of your presentation.

If you order your material in an intuitive manner that your audience can readily understand, they are more likely to be persuaded.

If you order your material in an awkward manner, your audience will struggle to understand, and they will resist being persuaded by your message.

Given the criticality of your presentation sequence, how do you choose the right one for your topic and your audience?

In this article, we:

• survey the available sequence types ,
• give examples of presentations which fit each scheme, and
• discuss the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Simple Sequences

Suppose you have a number of points you would like to discuss. You can’t discuss them all at the same time, so you have to decide which goes first, which goes second, … and which goes last.

If you organize them into a single list (i.e. no sub-lists, no hierarchy), then you have created a simple sequence . There are several simple sequences available to you, including:

• Chronological sequence
• Step-by-step sequence
• Spatial sequence
• Paired sequence
• Topical sequence
• Perspective-based sequence
• Sort-by-property sequence

Each of these simple sequences is discussed below.

1. Chronological Sequence

In a chronological sequence , items are ordered according to the date or time they occurred. Examples of presentations where a chronological sequence may apply:

• Key events in the War of 1812
• A day in the life of an E.R. doctor
• Development stages during a baby’s first year
• The past, present, and future of aviation safety

Many  scientific presentations follow a loose chronological sequence to recap the steps undertaken in an experiment:

• Experimental methods
• Analysis and discussion
• Conclusions

Advantages : A chronological sequence is easy to apply. Because most stories (parables, novels, movies) follow this pattern, it is a familiar pattern for audiences, and is thus quite easy to follow.

Disadvantages : Chronological sequence encourages “and-then” syndrome (“… and then… and then… and then… and then…”). It can feel like a long, tiring sequence, and may make it more difficult to highlight key takeaways.

2. Step-by-step Sequence

In a step-by-step sequence , items are organized according to their order within a process. Examples of presentations where a step-by-step sequence may apply:

• How to upgrade financial management software
• How to stuff and cook a turkey
• How to change a flat tire

Advantages : Easy to apply, and easy to follow. Particularly effective for any type of “how to” presentation.

Disadvantages : None, provided that the nature of the presentation is a good match for this sequence type.

3. Spatial Sequence

The most common type of spatial sequences  in presentations are those which organize items by geography . Examples of presentations which might use a geographic sequence are:

• Roadside attractions along the Oregon coast
• Ukrainian settlements throughout Canada from 1891 to 1914
• Local, regional, and national impact of hosting the Olympics

But spatial sequences do not always correspond to geography. Spatial sequences can also sequence the connected parts of a whole. Example presentations include:

• Functions of different parts of a plant (roots, stem, branches, leaves, fruit)
• How to design an ergonomic office/workspace (computer, desktop, seating, storage)
• Human nervous system (brain, spinal cord, nerves)

Advantages : Emphasizes the spatial relationships between your items. This can lead to a stronger understanding of the whole. Audiences can easily visualize how items “fit” together, particularly if you provide a map, diagram, or scale model.

Disadvantages : A spatial sequence is sometimes used even though the spatial dimension is meaningless to the content. Avoid this trap.

4. Paired Sequences

Paired sequences are short — only two items — but are quite common due to our propensity to compare and contrast .

There are a number of paired (or binary) sequences:

• e.g. Proposal to replace a paper-based process with an electronic one
• e.g. Strategy to recapture shrinking market share
• e.g. Impact of chemical processing plant on local water supply

Advantages : Natural pairings are easy to understand, and audiences expect that one will follow the other. Using a paired sequence generates anticipation and suspense.

Disadvantages : The binary nature of the paired sequence may not be flexible enough to handle complex real-world topics. The sequence suggests simplicity which may not be real. (It suggests a black-and-white situation, even though there may be fifty shades of grey.) For example, how do you handle a factor that is neither a cost nor a benefit? How do you handle a factor that is both a cost and a benefit?

“ There are many ways to organize your presentation. The choices you make seriously impact your success. ”

5. Topical Sequences

When all else fails, you can usually apply a topical sequence . Examples of presentations where a topical sequence may apply:

• Presenting a project plan (budget, schedule, staffing, testing)
• Unveiling new corporate strategy and discussing the impact on different stakeholders (marketing, sales, manufacturing, suppliers, customers)
• School dress code presentation (code details, common violations, enforcement, uniform costs)

Advantages : Can be applied in almost any presentation, even when chronological, spatial, or other sequences are not relevant. Because of this, it is the most common sequence pattern.

Disadvantages : Unlike previous patterns covered, topical patterns are not intuitive. By their nature, topical sequences are more abstract. Audiences can easily get lost, and may have difficulty seeing how the sequence items relate. It’s also easy for a presenter to “miss” an important topic. For these reasons, a topical sequence is generally weaker than other options.

6. Perspective-based Sequences

A perspective-based sequence is a little like a topical sequence turned inside out. Instead of looking at different aspects of the main issue, a perspective-based sequence involves investigating some entity through a series of different lenses.

For example, consider a proposal to adopt a corporate initiative on telecommuting. One way to sequence your presentation would be to consider the impact of the policy from several perspectives:

• From the perspective of telecommuting employees
• From the perspective of office-based employees
• From the perspective of managers
• From the perspective of IT
• From the perspective of Accounting

Advantages : Good for persuasive presentations when you encounter resistance, if you can correctly address the perspectives of each of your key stakeholders. Audience analysis is key!

Disadvantages : Can be repetitive (boring) if there is a great deal of topical overlap as you consider each of the perspectives.

7. Sort-by-property Sequences

Sort-by-property sequences are special topical sequences which allow a presenter to choose one property (or dimension) of their material and organize along that property (or dimension). You can choose any quality, as long as you can evaluate each item in your list e.g. importance, brightness, size, speed, popularity, shape, concreteness.

Once you choose the property, you then sequence your items in an appropriate order, often ascending or descending. For example:

• Smallest to largest
• Most understood to least understood
• Most concrete to most abstract (specific to general)
• Least impactful to most impactful

The optimal sort order may depend on the audience and the goals of the presentation. For example:

• Executive presentations often follow a sequence which begins with the most important item (what is being proposed?), and then follows with less important details (analysis, data, methods).
• Conference keynote addresses often follow a sequence which begins with small examples and points, progressively building to larger and larger points, and ending with a climax.

Advantages : Easy for an audience to follow and predict. Once you set the pattern with the first two elements, audience members will recognize it and use it to assess subsequent items.

Disadvantages : Avoid choosing a meaningless dimension on which to organize:

• If discussing hockey players, it would be meaningless to sequence by favorite music style.
• If discussing Academy Award winning actresses, it would be meaningless to sequence by hair color or breast size.
• An alphabetical sequence is rarely meaningful… no matter what your topic.

Compound and Nested Sequences

The sequences discussed so far are all simple sequences . For a very short presentation, you may be able to organize all of your material using just one these sequences.

As your presentation grows longer, you may split it into distinct parts, and choose a different sequence to present each part, one after the other. This is a compound sequence .

As the complexity of your presentation grows, simple and compound sequences may not be flexible enough. You may use one type of sequence to organize your blocks at the top level, and a different type of sequence to organize the sub-blocks at a lower level. This is a nested sequence .

For example, suppose your presentation focuses on Scandinavian culture. You might choose to organize first by a topical sequence: food, music, and literature. Then, within each of these topics, you could nest a geographic sequence:  Sweden, Norway, and Denmark. Your overall outline would be:

• Introduction

Basic sequences can be combined in a multitude of ways, resulting in many forms of the compound sequence and nested sequence.

Bonus…

Did you notice the sequencing pattern used in this article?

It’s a nested sequence.

• My primary organization is a sorted property sequence (dimension = complexity). I started with the simplest  sequences (chronological, step-by-step, spatial) and ended with the most complex sequences.
• Within each item, I used a topical sequence (definition, examples, advantages, disadvantages), which itself nested a paired sequence.

What do you think?

What sequences do you use most often in your presentations? Which sequences do you see others use well? Which are most often abused?

Please share this...

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When explaining the disadvantages of Sequence #3 Spatial, your article leaves me wondering in what example could it be “meaningless to the content.” I am cautioned to “Avoid this trap.” Please, explain further. Thank you. Susan

Thanks for your question. I’m sorry that my original explanation wasn’t clear enough.

Spatial sequences are very useful when your points have a strong, spatial relationship to one another. By arranging them spatially, you help your audience to see these spatial connections. Consider this topic: “roadside attractions along the Oregon coast”. Organizing this material spatially provides a useful framework for the audience, encouraging them to travel north-to-south (or vice versa) on a virtual road trip along the coast as you speak.

On the other hand, forcing a spatial sequence on material when there is no meaningful spatial relationship is inappropriate.

• In a speech discussing influential actresses, I might organize by genre (drama, comedy, action), or time period (the 50’s, the 70’s, the 2000’s). It would probably be meaningless to organize them by the country or state in which they were born.
• When describing how to stuff and cook a turkey, a step-by-step sequence is clearly the most appropriate. Organizing spatially (steps performed on the counter, steps performed in the sink, steps performed in the oven) would be meaningless because the steps would get all jumbled up and out of their natural order.

I like it. It is good. It has much that is of good use for me. You are obviously a learned man in this field. Please keep it up. I will look forward to more of these useful hints and wise guidance. With best regards.

AQ, MBA, UK

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How to Plan a Presentation

Last Updated: July 22, 2024 Fact Checked

This article was co-authored by Christopher Taylor, PhD . Christopher Taylor is an Adjunct Assistant Professor of English at Austin Community College in Texas. He received his PhD in English Literature and Medieval Studies from the University of Texas at Austin in 2014. There are 8 references cited in this article, which can be found at the bottom of the page. This article has been fact-checked, ensuring the accuracy of any cited facts and confirming the authority of its sources. This article has been viewed 232,135 times.

Presentation planning is a useful and necessary skill in the professional world as well as school. Whether you need to sell a product, or get a passing grade in your class, planning a presentation takes time and dedication. You will want to figure out the best way to construct your material, considering your audience and your presentation's message. From there, work on building your slides and materials. Assemble information in a logical order that best illustrates your point. Practice your presentation regularly before delivering it. This can help you figure out any information that should be cut or restructured.

Assembling Your Best Material

• Write down your most important points. See if you notice a key point emerging. If your audience were to take away one thing from this presentation, what would it be?
• Don't just bombard your audience with facts. Think about what these facts do for your audience. What's the point you're trying to make with the information?

• Are you trying to sell them a product, introduce them to a new idea, alter their way of thinking?
• Think about the kind of people in your audience. Do you have a tougher crowd, or do you have a group of enthusiastic people excited about what you're going to say?

• For example, if you're talking to a company about recycling program, you might discuss how corporate pollution contributes to global warming and how recycling can help the company save money. You wouldn't discuss the melting ice caps as a key point.
• Melting ice caps are a valid concern, but they are a fact or a supporting point.

• Add clarity to your argument by explaining anything the audience may not understand. For example: a brief overview of pollution's effect on climate change.
• Add authority by making connections with existing research, studies, and information. For example, you could mention the consensus in the scientific community that global warming is manmade and cite a few studies.
• Add color to your argument through visuals, like pictures and videos. For instance, you could show a chart of the amount of waste an average corporation produces in one month.

Finding a Trajectory for the Presentation

• Include the basics of introducing yourself. You can say something like, "I'm Clara Thompson from Clean Water Action, and I would like to address your company today."
• Get your audience's attention with a question or a fact. For example, you could ask: "Have you ever passed a body of water covered in green sludge and wondered how this happened? The answer may surprise you."
• You don’t have to write your presentation in chronological order. If you want to work on your main points first and save the introduction for last, you can.

• For example, you're trying to get the corporation to alter their recycling program. Start by overviewing the vast amount of corporate pollution in the world.
• Explain the consequences of this. Show how pollution contributes to climate change, then show what the corporation can do through changes in their policies.

• Common linking statements include things like, "Another important issue...," "Based on this data, you can now see..." and, "This brings me to my main point..."
• For example, "Now that I've shown you the effects of corporate pollution, this brings me to my main point. What can you do to stop it?"

• If you have any graphs or diagrams that will help illustrate your point, use them. Physically seeing information can help make your point more clear.
• You should also see if there are any videos you can include. A brief video of someone succinctly explaining an issue can shake things up a bit.
• Pictures are also nice. Each slide should have a picture related to the topic at hand.
• Make sure not to overuse graphics or visuals. Too many could be overwhelming or distracting for your audience.

• You only need one slide. Recap what your point was. Begin with something like, "As you can see..." and then briefly repeat your main point.
• A visual can help as well. Try adding one last visual aid that sums up your point. A graph or diagram would work well here.

Practicing Your Presentation

• If you're taking longer, cut some information out. You do not want to talk fast to include all information, as this can make you difficult to understand.
• For accuracy, talk in your regular voice. Do not speak too fast or too slow. You want to make sure you can fit in all information talking at a normal rate.

• Are any facts extraneous? It's great to illustrate the effects of global warming, but do you really need five examples of environmental decay? Try to cut it down to two or three.

• You should sound enthusiastic when presenting. Talk without hesitance, and don't use filler words, like "um" or "uh."
• Don't jump between topics. Use your linking sentences, and say things like, "And this brings me to the following..."
• Watch the time. Make sure your presentation isn't going on for too long.
• Watch yourself give the presentation in a mirror so you can correct any distracting movements or gestures.

• Don’t read the information off of your visuals since it could affect your engagement between yourself and the audience.

How Should You End a Presentation?

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• ↑ https://www.ncsl.org/legislators-staff/legislative-staff/legislative-staff-coordinating-committee/tips-for-making-effective-powerpoint-presentations.aspx
• ↑ https://www.comm.pitt.edu/oral-comm-lab/audience-analysis
• ↑ https://columbiacollege-ca.libguides.com/presentations/planning
• ↑ https://extension.oregonstate.edu/sites/default/files/documents/10551/partsofapresentation.pdf
• ↑ https://emedia.rmit.edu.au/learninglab/sites/default/files/Oral_presentations_signalling_2014_Accessible.pdf
• ↑ https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career-development/how-to-conclude-a-presentation
• ↑ https://www.nottingham.ac.uk/studyingeffectively/preparing/presentations/delivering.aspx
• ↑ https://www.gvsu.edu/ours/oral-presentation-tips-30.htm

About This Article

To plan your presentation, start by spending 5 to 10% of your time summarizing your research and linking it to a main point. A good way to start is with a key question or fact. Then, follow this summary with your research and work, which should take up 60 to 70% of the presentation. This is the body of your presentation, and should be made up of 3 key ideas which lead to your main point. Keep reading for our reviewer’s tips on how to organize the body of your presentation! Did this summary help you? Yes No

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How to Structure a PowerPoint Presentation

No matter how sleek or beautiful your slide decks appear, your presentation won’t be a success if it fails to adhere to a sound and proper structure, throughout. This is why it’s worth taking some time to learn how most effective presentations are structured.

And what could be a better way to understand the right way to design your presentations than learn it from a presentation company ? In this article, we share the standard structure of an effective PowerPoint presentation, in addition to some practical tips on how to implement this structure technically, using PowerPoint.

What Is the Standard Presentation Structure?

A decent presentation always has an important story to tell and, just like any other narration, it primarily consists of three basic sections: introduction, main body, and conclusion.

Introduction

The first section in your presentation should be an introduction. It should set the tone for your entire presentation and explain to the audience what they can expect from your presentation. Here are some of the slides you may want to add in the introduction section: 

• The title of the presentation
• The objective(s) of the presentation
• A table of contents

As you can guess, this will be the main section of your presentation, where you explain your topic of concern. Break down your content into bite-sized points, arrange them in a logical order, and then present all the information you would like to share with your audience, in order to support each of your points.

This section is to summarise all the key points or highlights from your presentation. Share with your audience how this information will help them in the future. Finally, thank the audience for viewing your presentation.

Tips for Structuring a PowerPoint Presentation

Now that you know what sections a typical presentation consists of, let’s take a look at how to structure it effectively in Microsoft PowerPoint.

Create slides and edit them in Outline View

It’s always a good idea to structure a PowerPoint presentation while in the editing mode. To do this efficiently, go to the ‘View’ tab and select ‘Outline View’. It will show you the title and main text section for each slide, and let you edit the text, while also providing an overview of the presentation’s content.

TIP: You can also use the Outline View to select a section of bullet text and promote it to slide titles, and vice versa. To do this, right-click on a relevant piece of text or title and select ‘Promote’ or ‘Demote’.

Arrange slides into sections

If you are developing a large PowerPoint presentation, it’s best to organise it by clubbing multiple slides together into sections that can be easily collapsed and expanded, whenever required.

• To create a new section, go to the list of slides, and right-click on the slide from where you want a new section to begin. 

From the drop-down menu, select ‘Add Section’ and assign a name to the section.

• To re-order the sections, right-click on the section name and click ‘Move Section Up’ or ‘Move Section Down’.
• To expand or collapse a section, click on the icons for the same on the left of the section name.

TIP: You can also access these settings by going to the under the ‘View’ tab and choosing Slide Sorter.

Create a well-organised table of contents

The aforementioned tips will help you organise a presentation’s content. However, it’s also crucial that your audience can navigate through your presentation with ease. This is why it’s always a good idea to create a structured and interactive table of contents, and place it near the beginning of the presentation.

To do this, follow these steps:

• Go to the title slide or a blank slide and insert the table of contents.
• Switch to ‘Outline View’, right-click on the outline pane, and click ‘Collapse’. Then, click ‘Collapse All’ to display only the titles.
• Select all the slide titles, copy them, and paste them on the desired slide.
• Select the title of the first slide and right-click on it. Then, click on ‘Link’.
• In the window that opens next, select ‘Place in This Document’ (from the left-hand menu), select the corresponding slide for the selected title, and click OK.

Repeat this procedure for the remaining titles and link them to the corresponding slides.

Wrapping Up

There you have it! There are many more tips to come, so, if you are interested to learn more about presentation design, don’t forget to check out our future blog posts.

Want to take your online presentation game to the next level? Contact us today!

Your Guide To Corporate Presentations From Real Presentation Expertsn

Mastering the art of pitch deck designn, how to avoid using filler words in your presentationn, a guide to slide count in presentationsn, 6 essential presentation skills for pitching successn, a guide to crafting powerful endings in presentationsn, what can our clients tell us about social media usen.

Your Guide To Corporate Presentations From Real Presentation Experts

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.css-1qrtm5m{display:block;margin-bottom:8px;text-transform:uppercase;font-size:14px;line-height:1.5714285714285714;-webkit-letter-spacing:-0.35px;-moz-letter-spacing:-0.35px;-ms-letter-spacing:-0.35px;letter-spacing:-0.35px;font-weight:300;color:#606F7B;}@media (min-width:600px){.css-1qrtm5m{font-size:16px;line-height:1.625;-webkit-letter-spacing:-0.5px;-moz-letter-spacing:-0.5px;-ms-letter-spacing:-0.5px;letter-spacing:-0.5px;}} Best Practices 5 essential preparation steps for a successful presentation

by Tom Rielly • June 15, 2020

Keeping your presentation visuals minimalistic, simple, and clear is just one important step to remember when designing a hit presentation. Leaving nothing to chance, great presenters prove quite methodical as they prepare. Here’s a checklist for everything you need to keep in mind before your next presentation:

1. Choose the right software for your needs

The easiest way to select the right presentation software for you is to simply find the one that is native to your device. For example, if you have a Mac, use Apple Keynote, if you work on Windows, use PowerPoint. Google Slides is recommended if you’re working with someone, as it makes collaboration very easy. Another software option is Prezi: a specialty tool called Prezi that creates a presentation using motion, zoom, and panning across one giant visual space.

2. Organize your files

As you develop your script and visuals, you will need to start assembling all the assets for your slides. Create a unique folder on your computer to hold these items. Keep the folder organized by media type (presentation drafts, photos, videos, scripts) and back them up frequently to the Cloud or external disk. Label each file with a specific descriptive name, e.g. “Susan Johnson singing magpie 2020”, as opposed to “IMG_4043.jpg”, which can make it confusing to find your assets. The more organized you are up front, the easier preparing for your presentation will be.

3. Prepare your presentation materials

Make sure your presentation materials (script, graphics, actual slides) are saved in at least two safe spots (for example, your computer and an external USB drive) and are backed-up frequently. If you are using an online presentation software, such as Google Slides, be sure to also download a copy of your presentation in case the internet connection is unreliable. Having all the individual assets on hand in addition to your presentation slides can be helpful if you experience tech issues before presenting, or if you need to make any last minute changes. Make sure to label your final presentation with the title and your name so it’s easy to find.

4. Practice, practice, practice!

Remember, practice makes perfect. People often run out of time making their presentations and have no time to practice. Most TED speakers practice at least ten times. Neuroscientist Jill-Bolte Taylor gave one of the most successful Talks in TED history with nearly 27 million views. How did she do it? She practiced her Talk over 40 times! By rehearsing multiple times you will naturally memorize your Talk, which means you won’t need note cards when you give your final presentation.

5. Do a final test run

Before presenting, make sure the equipment you need is working properly. It’s generally good practice to rehearse standing on the exact stage with the exact lighting using the exact computer that you will be using in your final presentation.

Here’s a quick checklist of what to look for when testing your equipment:

• If you're not using your own computer, the one provided might be slower and have trouble playing media. If you have videos or other media, make sure they play correctly
• Test the projector to make sure it’s HD
• Make sure images are clear
• Test the sound of any clips you use, as this is what goes wrong most frequently
• If you’re using a mic, test the volume

Don’t let technical issues or other blunders overshadow your presentation. By following these guidelines, and with a little preparation, you can engineer out the problems BEFORE they happen.

Ready to learn more about how to make your presentation even better? Get TED Masterclass and develop your ideas into TED-style talks

© 2024 TED Conferences, LLC. All rights reserved. Please note that the TED Talks Usage policy does not apply to this content and is not subject to our creative commons license.

How to Organize and Structure A Presentation for Maximum Impact

by Janice Tomich

• Presentation Planning & Public Speaking Skills

Have you attended a presentation where you had difficulty following along or understanding what the speaker was trying to communicate?

Were you lost along the way and couldn’t understand the key points (and covertly looked for the exit)? 

I suspect the answer is yes. We’ve all been there and felt sorry (and frustrated) for the presenter. You may have asked yourself what went wrong. 

There are many layers and interconnections that are required to write and give a business presentation or keynote address . Do it right and you’ll have your audience nodding yes and receive great presentation feedback . 

If you leave crucial organization and structure out you’ll create a disorganized presentation. One that will be difficult for your audience to follow. 

Table of Contents

Why Is It Important To Organize and Structure a Speech?

When I think back to well structured and poorly structured presentations, attending university comes to mind. 

I remember a few eccentric professors that went off on tangents that dipped and dived into the abyss and had little or nothing to do with the topic of the day. After class the hallway would be full of confused looks and comments such as, “I didn’t get what they were talking about. Did you?”

I also remember a few professor’s eloquent lectures that  took us along on a fluid, logical path. At the end of these lectures it was clear what they had planned for me to understand or do. After these classes the hallway discussions highlighted aha moments and the opportunities and possibilities of new ideas. 

These scenarios are common at conferences and meetings (whether in person or online) too. 

A well organized and structured presentation helps your audience quickly make sense of what you want to communicate – they will be able to connect the dots quickly and understand the message you are sharing. You’ll grab the audience’s attention, and keep it. 

What’s In It For Your Audience When You Organize Your Presentation?

And as one of those professors often reminded us, all communication, including presentations and speeches, are all about the audience, not about you the person writing or delivering them. 

Presentations must (or should) be audience focussed. Of course, you have a message to share but if it’s ignored your time invested is wasted. 

When you organize your presentation with the audience in mind they’ll understand your message and you have a better chance of them taking action.  

What’s In It For You To Create And Deliver An Organized Presentation?

Presentations are a big investment in time…or should be if they’re developed with creativity and thoughtfulness in mind.

When presentations/speeches are organized well, they will impact your attendees/audience. A speech that is well structured will influence and persuade.

​​​​Sucheta Misra Associate VP Inclusion & Diversity and Social Impact Leader

A question I always ask my clients when we debrief after they’ve delivered their presentation is about the reaction and feedback they received. Instead of the usual response of ‘great presentation’ or ‘well done’ when consideration to the presentation’s organization and structure is used, attendees often reach out to express how much the presentation impacted them. 

There’s nothing more rewarding than when you see the ideas that you’ve shared actually make change happen and that’s what a well organized presentation can do. 

Strategies For Organizing Your Research

Capture your research and notes all in one place.

There are online platforms that can help to gather your research in one place so you’re not wasting time hunting for that one important piece that’s some how disappeared. 

A few of my favourites are:

Evernote helps you capture notes and find them fast:

• Syncs notes to all devices.
• You can add text, images, audio, scans, PDFs, and documents to your notes.
• A powerful search tool that helps you find your research as you type.

“ Scrivener is an app often used by writers and works for writing presentations too because it brings together all your notes, research, and writing so they’re always at your fingertips: “Your background material is always at hand, and you can open it right next to your work. Write a description based on a photograph. Transcribe an interview. Take notes about a PDF file or web page.”

OneTab is a Chrome extension that populates all of your open tabs into one list. It’s brilliant having all of your internet research in one place with an added bonus of saving up to 95% of memory. If you’re like me, I have too many tabs open at one given time, which can make your computer move like a slug. 

Laser Focus Your Research

As a subject matter expert you have a depth and breadth of knowledge and experience, a database that your audience doesn’t have. With all your information gathering, having too much information is more often the problem than having too much. 

Does your audience need to know everything? Do you need to take them down obscure rabbit holes?

But it can be difficult to target and whittle down to the most relevant concepts to create a presentation that will convince and persuade. 

Which is why it’s key to keep yourself focussed. 

What is it you want the people that attend your presentation to know, think, or do? It’s necessary that you define this and consider while you develop your presentation. 

With your presentation focus in mind scan through your information. Dispense of the thoughts, ideas, and concepts that don’t support your key message. 

Structure Your Presentation With My Framework

I’m a public speaking coach , and often clients come to me with a draft presentation that they’ve built in Keynote as a Powerpoint presentation. It’s slide after slide of information, but it’s usually disjointed and a mess. I know it’s tempting to work from the slide deck platform, but it’s not in your best interest to skip presentation organization. 

You may ruffle at the thought of building your presentation in a framework structure, however my framework gives you lots of opportunity to get creative. 

Building a speech or presentation is similar to building a house. It needs to be supported by a strong foundation. 

All types of presentations—whether an investment pitch, an inspirational keynote speech, or a board meeting —can easily be developed and created using my framework. The framework provides flexibility to build out the length whether short, medium, or long. It guides you from getting clear about your key message, and then helps you weave that through the entire presentation structure, using supporting proofs, points, and arguments. The presentation map ends by prompting you to decide how to close.

I know it’s hard to have that difficult conversation, pitch that podcast, or choose just the right words to make your presentation come to life.

How Do I Begin Developing My Presentation?

Presentation Outline Example

It’s all about the audience.

In the first row of my presentation map you’ll see guided questions titled under intention. Each and every presentation is all about the audience (not about you). This is the first step to creating and organizing a presentation or speech. Having a solid grasp of who they are and what they want/need is key to the success of your speech or presentation.

How Will You Measure Success?

The next concept to clarity is your own intention.

Why are you giving the keynote and what do you want to have happen because of it?

How will you measure if you have been successful?

I see many speeches or presentations fail because a success measurement isn’t defined. It’s the driver for your speech and will illuminate what worked or didn’t. 

What Is Your Throughline?

It’s at this point I’ve watched many presentations go off the rails because the presenter covers too many key topics.

As a subject matter expert it’s enticing to share all you know. Remember that your audience doesn’t have the same depth and breadth of knowledge and the experience you have. 

KISS (Keep It Simple Stupid) is a basic design principle which ensures your audience will clearly understand your main point and is more likely to engage or follow up. 

Don’t let yourself get married to ideas that you love but don’t help with your audience understanding your key point and argument.

I’m a complete communication nerd and could go on all day about the good and bad that I hear and see every day. Do others want to hear all the minutia …no. They only want to know what impacts them. 

So take your red pencil and (bravely) cross out ideas / concepts that don’t pass the KISS principle. 

Organizing The Introduction 

Here’s a startling fact: in the 45 years since the introduction of the automated teller machine, those vending machines that dispense cash, the number of human bank tellers employed in the United States has roughly doubled, from about a quarter of a million to a half a million. – David Autor

The introduction is your chance to pull in your audience while creating an opening that will start the path of your through line. Creating it is usually better left until you’ve created the body of your speech or presentation.

Steer away from a long introduction that speaks to your expertise/credibility or providing too much context. Instead aim to pique your audience’s interest to hear more. 

There are many ways to begin a presentation. Here are a few of the tried and true:

• Begin with the start of a story that sets the stage for your theme/throughline. Then integrate it throughout your presentation and/or finish your presentation with the story ending. One of the best examples of this opening I’ve heard is Dr. Amy Cuddy’s TED Talk. She threads the theme of lacking confidence throughout her presentation beginning with her own and then that of one of her students.
• Share a stat or fact that is not common knowledge. Something that I often begin a presentation with is it’s a fallacy humans have the attention span of goldfish , which is one of those tall tales that is not true. 
• Ask a question – perhaps something contrary that isn’t a common point of view. The question can be rhetorical or ask for hand’s up to make your presentation interactive right from the start. My go-to is asking my audience about their level of comfort for public speaking. 
• Start with a quote that ties into the key message or your call to action. One of my favourites is a passage from Mary Oliver where she asks, “What is it you want to do with your wild and precious life”. I use it because it gets my audience thinking about how short life is and what uncomfortable (or wild) thing you would do to accomplish what you hope to. 
• Tell a joke. This is something I never do because I’m the worst joke teller. Some of my clients are brilliant at it. If you’re comfortable, then I encourage you to use humour as your opener. It’s a brilliant way to break the ice and get audience engagement quickly. Remember to leave a few seconds for people to laugh. Similar to a comedian, you need to consider your timing. 
• Get the elephant out of the room right away to break the ice. For example are you someone that is younger than many of those in the audience or perhaps older? Openings like this will help establish your credibility by showing your humility. 
• With a minimal amount of context/background state the problem that your audience is facing. Jumping quickly into the problem that you’ll be solving for your audience will get their attention. 

Organizing The Body Of Your Presentation Or Speech

You’ll notice in my presentation map above, just below the space where you define and describe your opening, there are three columns to prove/argue your key message/through line. 

For this section brainstorm as many ideas as come to mind that will support key message. Use Post-it notes to capture one idea per note. Stick them on a whiteboard or wall and keep going until you run out of ideas. Taking a few breaks helps clear your head and bubble up new ideas. After you’ve run out of ideas remove the weak ones. Then create clusters of ideas that are similar. Aim for three. Identify the (three) major themes, which will be your major proof points.

I encourage you to use only three major proof concepts. Any more and you’ll lose your audience because your presentation will be too dense. They will have difficulty following your train of thought. 

You should have a number of concepts that will support your three major proof points. Choose the strongest ones. How many you choose will depend on the amount of time you have to deliver your presentation. 

What Is The Internal Structure In The Argumentation?

What is. what can be.

In her public speaking book Resonate , Nancy Duarte, shares the concept of ‘What is and What Can Be”. This framework takes the audience from the present state to possibilities. Her technique can be used for the major theme, the key messages, and the supporting messages to take the audience on the up and down of a roller coaster ride. 

Context, Problem, Solution, And Benefit

The CPSB (Context, Problem, Solution, and Benefit) framework is powerful for clear communication. 

• Using two or three sentences describe the background of a problem/issue. 
• Go on to speak to the problem at hand.
• Then speak to your idea(s) about solving the problem.
• And always talk about the benefit your solution will provide. It’s key to persuading and influencing your audience.

Here’s an example of CPSB in action:

Insightful leaders are focussed on creating an open and trust-based culture. By supporting their team members this way an organization has opportunity for sustainable growth. ( Background ) 

Many organizations are steeped in antiquated hierarchical, politically charged environments where employees feel the need to be careful of what they say and do. This type of org structure stagnates growth. ( Problem ) 

When leaders foster a culture where their teams can speak openly, which requires them in turn to be vulnerable (and open to feedback) ( Solution ) it creates a creative environment that supports growth ( Benefit ). 

Use An Example Or Story  

Presentations or speeches where the speaker delivers data point after data point or statement after statement are dry and run the risk of losing their audience. 

Stories are appropriate for even the most professional or academic presentations.

With each proof point to illuminate and connect the dots of understanding use a real world example or a short story. I often have my clients analyze other people’s presentations. The most remembered parts are the stories. 

Stories and examples are sticky and help us make sense of concepts and ideas. Without them speeches and presentations are simply boring. 

Organizing The Conclusion: What Are The Essential Elements Of An Impactful Conclusion? 

Have you attended a presentation where you were unsure if it was over?

People weakly clapped or nodded and then left the room? Unfortunately it happens too often. 

Your conclusion is as important as every other element of your speech or presentation. 

The biggest mistake I see presenters make is facilitating a Q & A and then wrapping it up with the answer to the last question. When you do this you give your power away.

After the Q & A take back control and wrap it up. 

There are as many ways to conclude as there are to open. 

Here’s a few that work well:

• Loop back to your story if you opened with one. Concluding this way finishes up your presentation so that it ‘feels’ finished as though wrapped up with a bow. 
• Highlight the most important concept that you shared – one that you want remembered. One is all you need. 
• If you’ve created a presentation with the intention of having your audience do something – a call to action – you will have seeded it throughout. When you conclude it’s time to fully describe what it is you want them to do. 
• A powerful statement. When I present I often speak about presentation skills and start by talking about how my fear of public speaking brought up horrible anxiety and when I delivered presentations you could see my legs shake. I have concluded with, “See…no more leg shakes”. 

• A powerful visual if you are using a slidedeck. Simply standing beside a well chosen image is an unusual ending that will be remembered.
• The ‘what could be’ close describes how good life will be or the success a company will realize if your solution or idea is used. Concluding with a visually rich outcome has your audience leaving on a positive note. 
• A rhetorical question will have your audience leaving with food for thought for example, “What would your company’s pitches look like if each and every team member could deliver with confidence”. 

What are the consequences of not having a satisfying conclusion?

You’re the one who has the stage and whose responsibility it is to finish your presentation powerfully. It’s your last opportunity to make an impression and a missed one if you don’t. It’s your opportunity to leave your audience inspired or with a clear understanding of what you want then to do.

Taking the time to organize your presentation is worthwhile. By considering and following through each of the concepts I’ve guided you through will create a presentation that is clear, focussed, and will engage your audience. One that you’ll be proud to deliver. 

Do you have a limited amount of time to deliver your upcoming presentation? If presentation or speech is looming and you need to be confident you’ll deliver an A+ presentation my Crunch Time service may be what you need.

It would be my pleasure to work with you. 

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7 Ways to Structure Your Presentation to Keep Your Audience Wanting More

Written by: Orana Velarde

The most successful and memorable presentations have one thing in common.

They all tell a story.

No matter how many facts or charts need to be presented, incorporating stories into a presentation will keep your audience focused and intrigued.

Using stories to support data is a well-known technique in all aspects of public speaking, from motivational talks to in-company sales pitches.

Here’s a short selection of 8 easy-to-edit modern presentation templates you can edit, share and download with Visme. View more templates below:

In this guide, we will look at 7 ways to structure your presentations using storytelling techniques to keep your audience engaged until the very end.

Look closely at each one to see which fits your presentation’s purpose best!

Planning Your Presentation Structure: Like Building a Lego Model

Is it easier to separate the correct pieces before you start building?  Or is it better to search in a big bucket with mixed parts for every new piece you need?

We’re pretty sure you will pick the first option.  In the beginning, it might seem like this option would take longer, but the opposite is true.

The first step to a successful presentation structure is to brainstorm your ideas and combine them into a rough draft. But first, consider the message you want to relay to your audience.

RELATED: A Non-Designer's Guide to Creating Memorable Visual Presentations

The Message

What is the message you want to convey with your presentation?

A good starting point is to decide if it will be informative, entertaining, inspiring or persuasive.

In a business setting, you might want your presentation to do two of these things: inform and persuade. If you are a mindset coach for companies, then you might want to entertain and inspire.

The main message should be easy to grasp from the title on your first slide. Think of an appropriate way to word what you want to give your audience in one or two sentences. This can of course be changed later, but having a preliminary title will help get your ideas in order for what comes next.

RELATED: 150+ Presentation Topic Ideas for Students [Plus Templates]

Once you know which direction your presentation will take, it’s time to jot all your ideas down on paper to create a presentation outline and rough draft of all the points you will cover.

7 Ways to Structure Your Presentation

Now that the brainstorming and rough draft are out of the way, it’s time to start structuring your presentation. This is when we introduce the storytelling aspect into the equation.

All the information you have gathered and organized in your rough draft now needs some attitude to really get your message across.

We are going to look at 7 different styles of storytelling structures that work great for presentations. They all have a different style of delivery and cadence. Choosing one for your presentation will depend on your message and who your audience is.

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Fact and Story

The first structure we will look at is Fact and Story . The premise is that the presentation moves back and forth between facts and stories.

Presentation guru Nancy Duarte wrote about this presentation structure in her book " Resonate ." She suggests that mixing storytelling with the relay of facts can help your audience stay interested until the end of your presentation.

According to Duarte, this type of structure should start off with an initial setting of the present reality: the “what is.” From there, an invitation to adventure is presented and the first instance of “what could be” is told as a story to illustrate how the initials facts can be improved.

This comparison of presenting the facts as what they are at the present moment with stories that show how things could be improved is what keeps your audience interested and waiting for more.

The conclusion should end at a high point, considerably higher than where it began. The audience should feel like they learned something and, at the same time, inspired to change.

This structure maintains a level of suspense and excitement, perfect for presentations that need to inspire AND inform.

This TED talk by David McCandless about the The Beauty of Data Visualization is a perfect example of the Fact and Story structure. He presents a collection of data visualizations which he created himself, along with a story of why he chose each particular set of data.

The topics he chose were extremely relevant to our present day and the audience related to all of them. The personal stories added to the intrigue and the audience left feeling like data visualizations are not only beautiful but also quite important.

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The Explanation

According to Gavin McMahon, co-founder of fassforward Consulting Group , the presentation structured labeled as The Explanation is meant to teach new insights and abilities.

Its main purpose is to inform about a process or plan to either fix a problem or learn something new. A good way to incorporate storytelling into the structure is to show the progression of the facts along with the progression of a story.

The presentation progresses in an upward motion following these steps:

• The Lay of the Land shows how things stand right now, what the destination is and how you plan to get there. The point is to get the audience excited and on board as quickly as possible by showing them the entire process straight up. Tell a story that relates directly to the introduction. Better yet, start with a story.
• The Roadmap is a visual map of how you will get to the final destination and reach the resolution. Set the audience on the right track.
• The First Step begins the adventure to get where you want to go.
• T he Next Steps is the middle section of the presentation, where all the steps are laid out one by one.
• Almost there is the catharsis where you look back at how much has changed and progressed since the first step.
• The Arrival is the celebration of the end of the journey. The audience should feel like they have learned something new and gained new knowledge.

The Explanation structure can be used for presentations by consultants that want to teach new ways of doing things inside a company or department. It could also perfectly fit in a sales meeting where a presenter can explain their process of a masterful sales plan.

This TED talk by Amy Cuddy about how your body language shapes who you are is a great example of an Explanation structure. She tells us about her experiment on power poses and how they can affect the outcome of a difficult situation.

The presentation starts off with a discussion on the natural animal and human condition of power and ends with a personal invitation to change your life with a 2-minute practice of power posing.

If you are a lover of the show "Grey’s Anatomy," this is the idea behind the power pose that the neurosurgeons do before a big procedure.

As you know, a pitch in the business sense is when a presenter uses the power of a presentation or speech to convince the audience of something he/she believes will improve a system or solve a problem, according to Gavin McMahon, co-founder of fassforward Consulting Group .

The Pitch presentation structure is like a climb uphill that takes you over a hurdle and on to a positive resolution.

It shows how the presenter’s idea can really improve a situation. By using a real and relatable story, the pitch makes more sense and feels more important.

• The Wind Up is a quick summary of what’s going on right now to presents the facts in a way that is easy to grasp and relatable to the audience.
• The Hurdle presents the problem that needs to be solved . Relay the problem with a story so that the emphasis is doubled.
• The Vision presents a glimpse into the main idea on how the problem can be solved.
• The Options is the moment when two different options are laid out as possibilities to solve the initial problem. The idea is to give an average option first, followed by a great option second. If there have already been tests and experiments to prove these facts, then these are the story.
• The Close is the point where the ideal option is presented as the best and only option.
• The Fine Print tells the audience exactly how the problem will be solved, the steps that need to be taken and the tasks to be resolved.
• The Hook is the uplifting conclusion to the presentation which relays an added bonus to the solution of the problem.

Use The Pitch presentation structure when you want to convince someone that your idea is the best for their problem. This structure also works when a new startup is looking for new funding or sponsorship opportunities.

This TED talk by Enric Sala about how to turn the high seas into the world’s largest natural reserve is a great example of a Pitch structure. He starts off with a story of how a group of fishermen revived an area of the ocean by stopping all the fishing there and turning it into a natural reserve.

Ten years later, that piece of ocean makes more money from scuba diving tourism than it ever did from fishing. He continues to talk about the same problem at a larger scale, the diminishing supply of fish and the destruction of the oceans.

His pitch to solve the impending problem is to turn the high seas into a natural reserve. He finishes by telling the audience that the plan is being pitched to the UN and that every individual can help their country abide by the new agreement if it goes through.

There is a well-known structure in literature called “The Hero’s Journey” which follows the plight of a main character from the beginning of a story to the end and leaves the reader feeling like they've learned a lesson they will never forget.

This type of presentation structure, The Drama , has a strong storytelling aspect. This is often used to tell the story of an influential company from founding days, through trials and tribulations, and then finishes with an inspiring show of success.

Another perfect presentation for The Drama structure is an inspiring personal story.

These are the steps of a Drama style presentation structure:

• One Fine Day . The introduction sets the stage with a situation where things are not perfect but just average. Imagine as if it were the first page of a book, where the setting is laid out and the audience gets an idea of a time and place.
• The Challenge. Suddenly a problem appears that can’t be ignored. The things that need to be solved are presented as a challenge.
• Descending Crisis . At this point, the problem is attacked head on but things gets worse until it hits rock bottom.
• Rock Bottom. When all seems lost and everything is at its worst, the story arrives at a standstill. As an added bonus, the presenter can pause for effect.
• The Discovery . This is the moment when a glimmer of light shows up and there is a discovery, a new way of resolving the problem.
• The Rise . By discovering new abilities, the problem can be tackled in a positive way.
• The Return . Not only are the problem and challenge resolved, the character and the audience break through and reach an unexpected happiness threshold, opening the world to a whole new range of possibilities.
• The Lesson . The conclusion is reached with an unforgettable lesson and resolution. The audience will feel inspired, informed and entertained.

This TED talk by Adam Driver about his journey from Marine to actor is the perfect example of The Drama structure.

He begins the story by telling the audience about what his life was like before he joined the Marines and what drove him to do it.

He tells how the Marines became his family, and closest friends. Then, right before deploying to Iraq or Afghanistan, he had an accident that separated him from the Marines for good.

He continues to explain how he went on to become an actor, followed by the creation of his project to unify theater with military service.

His talk ends with an example of the theater pieces he coordinates to be presented at military camps. Listeners are left with their hearts full of a newfound hope for humanity.

RELATED: This Classic Storytelling Model Will Help You Give a Mesmerizing Presentation

Situation - Complication - Resolution

According to Gavin McMahon , co-founder of fassforward Consulting Group, most presentations in the realm of B2B sales and business consultancy follow the Situation - Complication - Resolution structure. It is a three-element storyline linked by the words  but  and  therefore .

The starting point is The Situation , where current conditions are shown in an unbiased and transparent way. The situation connects to the next step through the word but .

A simple example: Our home decor company is selling pretty well this month, but…

This is when The Complication is presented.

In the above example, it could look something like this:

Our home decor company is selling pretty well this month, but  … we have been spending too much on international shipping.

When presenting The Complication , use facts to prove it. Present it as the challenge that needs to be overcome. The Complication is a low point, but from a low point we can only go up.

The final destination is The Resolution , which is connected to The Complication with the word, therefore .

Our home decor company is selling pretty well this month, but we have been spending too much on international shipping. Therefore,  we need to start using a new company that has a better price range and great service.

Back up all of your information with real facts and proof.

Situation - Opportunity - Resolution

A similar structure to the one above, the Situation - Opportunity - Resolution  replaces  Complication with   Opportunity . This three-part structure is also joined by the words  but  and  therefore .

The difference is that instead of the movement going down and then up, it goes slightly up and then levels out.

This structure is perfect when you need to show that something is not that hard to fix; that the problem might not be so big after all and that the solution is easy to grasp.

A presentation that follows this structure could turn out to be quite short, if only the facts are presented, but that would leave the audience feeling like “is that it?” Adding an interesting story to help the audience relate makes the overall presentation more effective.

This TED talk by Adam Galinsky about how to speak up for yourself is a perfect example of the Situation - Opportunity - Resolution presentation structure. He starts off by saying: “Speaking up is hard,” and instantly everyone in the audience can relate.

He gives a few personal stories about times when he should have spoken up and others when he shouldn’t. He gives contextual proof and explanations about how sometimes we feel powerless, other times powerful, and how this affects if we speak up or not.

His solution to the problem is not a huge effort but rather a personal mindset change. The presentation ends with an inspiring quote by the speaker’s father which leaves the audience feeling like they will know exactly when it’s the perfect time to speak up, or not.

Hook, Meat and Payoff

This presentation structure, like The Drama, is deeply founded in the art of storytelling. While the Hero’s Journey is more of a literary technique,  Hook, Meat and Payoff is more like a spoken-word progression.

The idea is that with the Hook , the presenter gives the audience a sense of place and time, plus a situation that will put them at the edge of their seats, wanting more.

The Meat is the middle section and usually the longest part of the presentation where the story progresses and all the information is relayed in an interesting and inviting way.

The Payoff is the inspiring conclusion that circles back to the beginning and leaves the audience feeling inspired.

It's like when you come out of the movie theater: You feel better about yourself and the world around you, as if you've learned something important that will make your life a little better.

This TED talk by Jill Bolte Taylor about her stroke of insight is a perfect example of a Hook, Meat and Payoff presentation structure.

One of the most famous TED talks of all time, this presentation starts with her personal story of the time she suffered a brain hemorrhage and stroke.

She is a neuroanatomist; she studies brains for a living. Her experience of having a stroke is one of the deepest stories you'll ever hear about the union between science and spirituality.

Her presentation hook, a real human brain which she shows to the audience, very much grabs your attention. The meat of the talk is also entertaining and interesting; she has the audience laughing and crying right along with her.

In the end, she recounts the moment when she felt her body die and then woke up feeling like she was a different person. She had lost all capacities with the stroke, and it took her eight years to learn to talk and walk again.

The Payoff is her invitation to everyone to feel like they have Nirvana at their fingertips, that being conscious of the world around us is not an impossible task.

RELATED: 7 Storytelling Techniques Used by the Most Inspiring TED Presenters

Make a Storyboard

Now that we've looked at the seven different ways that you can structure your presentation with storytelling techniques, it’s time to make a storyboard.

A storyboard is what film makers use to set up the structure of their movie before filming it. It is created with the help of the screenplay, following the flow of the story. Each rectangle in the storyboard is a scene in the film.

Presenters use this process of storyboarding to set up their presentations because it really helps with productivity. A storyboard is essentially a visual draft of your presentation.

(A note for the “un-artistic”: Don’t worry about things looking amazing right now! Uneven squiggles and weird shapes work the same way as perfect squares. The designed and finished look will come later when you set it all up in the Visme editor.)

As you add the story aspect to your presentation, make sure you don’t get too wordy and try using visuals instead of too much text. Use one or two sentences at most for each slide.

The best way to make a storyboard is with index cards, using each card as a slide. You can add things or easily take them away before you even start to design the final draft.

If it makes things easier, you can take a look at some presentation templates in Visme to see how we've created different slides. This might visually inspire the cards in your storyboard.

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Build it with Visme

You are now ready to move on to the final step: building your presentation with Visme. Okay, you can create it with whichever presentation software you like, but we think you'll conclude Visme is one of the best choices out there.

Promotions aside, it’s time to bring it all to life.

First, open a new presentation canvas, then choose a template or start from scratch. When you start from a blank canvas in Visme, you can add pre-built slides one by one from the slide library.

Create your slides by following the storyboard. For an added bonus, you can use animations, videos and audio to make your presentation unique.

Record your own audio and voiceovers within Visme

If your presentation is meant to be seen on its own, online or sent as a scrollable PDF, there might need to be more text than on a visual presentation which accompanies a speech. You can try animating the text so it's not just a big block of words.

Using audio also helps, but if the viewer has their computer on mute, they might miss it. Make sure your first slide gives the instruction to turn up the volume.

If your visual presentation is going to be used as a backdrop for a speech, you can forgo some of the text and make it more visual.

Remember to rehearse your speech along with the slides so it all flows seamlessly. TED speakers suggest you rehearse a spoken presentation at least 10 times until it flows naturally.

If you need more help with your presentation design, don't forget to grab our free e-book below.

Create beautiful presentations faster with Visme.

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About the Author

Orana is a multi-faceted creative. She is a content writer, artist, and designer. She travels the world with her family and is currently in Istanbul. Find out more about her work at oranavelarde.com

• Effective Presentation Skills Tutorial
• Organizing the Presentation

Organize the content of your presentation in a logical sequence based on the outline you prepared. No matter how you decide to organize your presentation, keep the audience engaged to better help them remember the content. You can do this by asking them questions or having them share experiences related to the topic.

The Beginning of the Presentation

The beginning of your presentation sets the tone for the rest of the talk, so it is important to impress your audience with your approach, style and topic. Begin the presentation with something that attracts the audience’s attention, but keep it relevant to the topic and avoid jokes or irrelevant comments that could be misunderstood by the audience, especially if you are not familiar with the audience.

You can begin with an important statistic relevant to the topic, or a quote, or ask a question that interests the audience in the topic. For example, if the focus of your presentation is about environmental pollution by household activities, a simple question to interest the audience in your presentation could be "Does anyone know how many drops of drinking water are polluted by one drop of motor oil?" If anyone in the audience knows the correct answer, acknowledge that individual and ask how many of them knew that as well. Otherwise, give the answer, and begin your presentation.

Rule to Remember

Develop the beginning of your presentation after you develop the body of the presentation.

Engaging Opening

This video clip is an example of an opening statement that attracts the audience's attention to the topic .

Dry Opening

This video clip is an example of an opening statement that is dry and doesn't engage the audience's attention .

The Body of the Presentation

Begin planning the body of your presentation first. Once you have developed this part of the presentation, the beginning and end will fall into place.

You can order the main points of each section of your presentation as outlined in one of several ways depending on the nature of the presentation. Some possible orders of points include the following, though there can be others, depending on the topic and/or discipline:

• Spatial order – suitable for describing a layout or a process, from the beginning or entry point, to the end or exit.
• Chronological order – suitable for discussing literature review by years, or for describing the steps for doing something.
• Causal order – suitable for explaining causes and their effects. For example, how lack of sleep impacts worker productivity and safety.
• Topical order – suitable for presenting on different topics in a field such as different types of problem-solving techniques.
• Problem–Solution order – suitable for describing a particular problem and how it can be solved.

Choose the order suitable for covering the main points of your presentation for the particular section of the outline.

The End of the Presentation

End the presentation by reiterating the purpose of the presentation, summarizing the major points, and concluding with a quote, remark or fact that the audience will remember.

Missing Conclusion - Example 1

Missing conclusion - example 2.

These video clips are examples of a presenter transitioning from the body of the presentation to Q&A without a proper conclusion section.

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• Storytelling

8 Time Tested Patterns For presentation organization

A good presentation  structure makes or breaks a presentation.

In this article, I’ll explore several of my favorite structures you can use to organize your presentations for maximum impact.

Presentation Organization With 8 Patterns

One of the most important factors that contribute to a successful presentation is the pattern of organization that you use to structure and arrange your ideas.

1. Chronological pattern

This model is best suitable for historical, timeline and process or procedure topics that can be split into different segments according to the time sequence. Structuring your presentation chronologically means your information will be arranged according to the order of time in which each event occurred. Chronologically structured presentations often contain segments like dates, flash-backs, future-present-past, before-during-after, flash-forwards, etc.

2. Sequential pattern

Just like the Chronological pattern, a sequential pattern also involves organizing information in a particular order over given period. The information is arranged systematically in a step-by-step sequence that essentially describes a particular process. Under this pattern, the main sections, further divided into sub-sections, represent each primary step while its sub-sections represent the sub-steps that the targeted audience will follow in the real-life application of what is being described. A sequential pattern is best suitable for presentations like a report, project rollout, etc., that describe a process that occurs in a series of step over a period.

3. Spatial pattern

A spatial pattern of presentation organization is the arrangement of information depending on how things fit within a physical space. It involves creating a mental picture of the parts of something so that they can be analyzed in their physical position. Spatial pattern is mostly used in descriptions, but can also work well for classifications, narrations, examples, and other forms of exposition. For instance, while describing a building, I might begin with the description of the entrance, what I see at the door, the color of the building, what I see as I walk towards the middle of the room, etc..

4. Climatic pattern

A climatic presentation pattern is the arrangement of information from the least important to the most important. You essentially save the best and the most important part of the presentation for the last to hold the attention of your audience. Words commonly used under this category include most difficult, better still, worse yet, more important, etc.

5. Problem-Solution pattern

Problem-Solution Pattern is mostly applied in a persuasive presentation, where you describe the causes and effects of a problem with high clarity and then point out a solution that either control or eliminate the effects. It involves the arrangement of your presentation information into two main segments. The first segment discusses the nature of a problem while the second segment discusses the solution. This pattern is best suited for a presentation where your aim is to convince and compel your audience to take action.

6. Compare-Contrast pattern

This pattern involves organizing information depending on how two or more things are related to or different from one another. This presentation works well in a situation where your audience can better understand a particular topic when it is discussed in a relationship to another topic.

7. Cause-effect pattern

This pattern is best suitable for persuasive and expository presentations in which you advocate your audience to take action that will result in a solution to a problem. In this pattern, information is arranged to show the reasons why something happened or the effects of something.

8. Advantage-disadvantage pattern

In this pattern, information is organized into “good” or “bad” categories, or pros and cons. It gives your audience the opportunity to weigh and consider all options before deciding which is best for them with minimal outside influence.

Conclusion:

These were my top 8 time tested patterns for structuring your presentations. If I missed some or if you think of one that could be useful, please leave it in the comment. I would love to add the knowledge to the community.

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How can you make a good presentation even more effective?

This page draws on published advice from expert presenters around the world, which will help to take your presentations from merely ‘good’ to ‘great’.

By bringing together advice from a wide range of people, the aim is to cover a whole range of areas.

Whether you are an experienced presenter, or just starting out, there should be ideas here to help you to improve.

1. Show your Passion and Connect with your Audience

It’s hard to be relaxed and be yourself when you’re nervous.

But time and again, the great presenters say that the most important thing is to connect with your audience, and the best way to do that is to let your passion for the subject shine through.

Be honest with the audience about what is important to you and why it matters.

Be enthusiastic and honest, and the audience will respond.

2. Focus on your Audience’s Needs

Your presentation needs to be built around what your audience is going to get out of the presentation.

As you prepare the presentation, you always need to bear in mind what the audience needs and wants to know, not what you can tell them.

While you’re giving the presentation, you also need to remain focused on your audience’s response, and react to that.

You need to make it easy for your audience to understand and respond.

3. Keep it Simple: Concentrate on your Core Message

When planning your presentation, you should always keep in mind the question:

What is the key message (or three key points) for my audience to take away?

You should be able to communicate that key message very briefly.

Some experts recommend a 30-second ‘elevator summary’, others that you can write it on the back of a business card, or say it in no more than 15 words.

Whichever rule you choose, the important thing is to keep your core message focused and brief.

And if what you are planning to say doesn’t contribute to that core message, don’t say it.

4. Smile and Make Eye Contact with your Audience

This sounds very easy, but a surprisingly large number of presenters fail to do it.

If you smile and make eye contact, you are building rapport , which helps the audience to connect with you and your subject. It also helps you to feel less nervous, because you are talking to individuals, not to a great mass of unknown people.

To help you with this, make sure that you don’t turn down all the lights so that only the slide screen is visible. Your audience needs to see you as well as your slides.

5. Start Strongly

The beginning of your presentation is crucial. You need to grab your audience’s attention and hold it.

They will give you a few minutes’ grace in which to entertain them, before they start to switch off if you’re dull. So don’t waste that on explaining who you are. Start by entertaining them.

Try a story (see tip 7 below), or an attention-grabbing (but useful) image on a slide.

6. Remember the 10-20-30 Rule for Slideshows

This is a tip from Guy Kawasaki of Apple. He suggests that slideshows should:

• Contain no more than 10 slides;
• Last no more than 20 minutes; and
• Use a font size of no less than 30 point.

This last is particularly important as it stops you trying to put too much information on any one slide. This whole approach avoids the dreaded ‘Death by PowerPoint’.

As a general rule, slides should be the sideshow to you, the presenter. A good set of slides should be no use without the presenter, and they should definitely contain less, rather than more, information, expressed simply.

If you need to provide more information, create a bespoke handout and give it out after your presentation.

7. Tell Stories

Human beings are programmed to respond to stories.

Stories help us to pay attention, and also to remember things. If you can use stories in your presentation, your audience is more likely to engage and to remember your points afterwards. It is a good idea to start with a story, but there is a wider point too: you need your presentation to act like a story.

Think about what story you are trying to tell your audience, and create your presentation to tell it.

Finding The Story Behind Your Presentation

To effectively tell a story, focus on using at least one of the two most basic storytelling mechanics in your presentation:

Focusing On Characters – People have stories; things, data, and objects do not. So ask yourself “who” is directly involved in your topic that you can use as the focal point of your story.

For example, instead of talking about cars (your company’s products), you could focus on specific characters like:

• The drivers the car is intended for – people looking for speed and adventure
• The engineers who went out of their way to design the most cost-effective car imaginable

A Changing Dynamic – A story needs something to change along the way. So ask yourself “What is not as it should be?” and answer with what you are going to do about it (or what you did about it).

For example…

• Did hazardous road conditions inspire you to build a rugged, all-terrain jeep that any family could afford?
• Did a complicated and confusing food labelling system lead you to establish a colour-coded nutritional index so that anybody could easily understand it?

To see 15 more actionable storytelling tips, see Nuts & Bolts Speed Training’s post on Storytelling Tips .

8. Use your Voice Effectively

The spoken word is actually a pretty inefficient means of communication, because it uses only one of your audience’s five senses. That’s why presenters tend to use visual aids, too. But you can help to make the spoken word better by using your voice effectively.

Varying the speed at which you talk, and emphasising changes in pitch and tone all help to make your voice more interesting and hold your audience’s attention.

For more about this, see our page on Effective Speaking .

9. Use your Body Too

It has been estimated that more than three quarters of communication is non-verbal.

That means that as well as your tone of voice, your body language is crucial to getting your message across. Make sure that you are giving the right messages: body language to avoid includes crossed arms, hands held behind your back or in your pockets, and pacing the stage.

Make your gestures open and confident, and move naturally around the stage, and among the audience too, if possible.

10. Relax, Breathe and Enjoy

If you find presenting difficult, it can be hard to be calm and relaxed about doing it.

One option is to start by concentrating on your breathing. Slow it down, and make sure that you’re breathing fully. Make sure that you continue to pause for breath occasionally during your presentation too.

For more ideas, see our page on Coping with Presentation Nerves .

If you can bring yourself to relax, you will almost certainly present better. If you can actually start to enjoy yourself, your audience will respond to that, and engage better. Your presentations will improve exponentially, and so will your confidence. It’s well worth a try.

Improve your Presentation Skills

Follow our guide to boost your presentation skills learning about preparation, delivery, questions and all other aspects of giving effective presentations.

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See also: Five Ways You Can Do Visual Marketing on a Budget Can Presentation Science Improve Your Presentation? Typography – It’s All About the Message in Your Slides

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What It Takes to Give a Great Presentation

• Carmine Gallo

Five tips to set yourself apart.

Never underestimate the power of great communication. It can help you land the job of your dreams, attract investors to back your idea, or elevate your stature within your organization. But while there are plenty of good speakers in the world, you can set yourself apart out by being the person who can deliver something great over and over. Here are a few tips for business professionals who want to move from being good speakers to great ones: be concise (the fewer words, the better); never use bullet points (photos and images paired together are more memorable); don’t underestimate the power of your voice (raise and lower it for emphasis); give your audience something extra (unexpected moments will grab their attention); rehearse (the best speakers are the best because they practice — a lot).

I was sitting across the table from a Silicon Valley CEO who had pioneered a technology that touches many of our lives — the flash memory that stores data on smartphones, digital cameras, and computers. He was a frequent guest on CNBC and had been delivering business presentations for at least 20 years before we met. And yet, the CEO wanted to sharpen his public speaking skills.

• Carmine Gallo is a Harvard University instructor, keynote speaker, and author of 10 books translated into 40 languages. Gallo is the author of The Bezos Blueprint: Communication Secrets of the World’s Greatest Salesman  (St. Martin’s Press).

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How to Organize Your Introduction for a Presentation [+ FREE Presentation Checklist]

May 1, 2018 | Business Professional English , Free Resource , Public Speaking & Presentations

This lesson on how to organize your introduction for a presentation in English has been updated since its original posting in 2016 and a video has been added.

Getting ready to present in English? Here’s how to make sure your introduction for a presentation in English is successful.

But first… When you think about a presentation, I know you’re thinking about something like a TED video or a presentation at a conference. You’re thinking about a speech, with PowerPoint slides and a big audience.

But did you know we use the same skills when we share new information or ideas with our work colleagues? Or when we tell stories to our friends and family? The situation or speaking task may be different but we still use the same skills.

When presenting information or telling stories, we need to:

• Capture a listener’s attention
• Share information, ideas, or opinions
• Give the important details
• Make your information memorable
• Get your audience (family, friends, colleagues or strangers) to agree, to take action, to change their mind, etc.

So today you’re going to learn how to take the first big step in your English presentation: how to start with a great introduction.

The introduction is the most important part of your presentation. It is the first impression you’ll make on your audience. It’s your first opportunity to get their attention. You want them to trust you and listen to you right away.

However, that first moment when you start to speak is often the hardest. Knowing how to best prepare and knowing what to say will help you feel confident and ready to say that first word and start your presentation in English.

Be sure to include these 5 things in your inroduction.

Lesson by Annemarie

How to Organize Your Introduction for a Presentation in English and Key Phrases to Use

Organize Your Introduction Correctly

Okay, first let’s focus on what you need to include in your English introduction. Think of this as your formula for a good introduction. Using this general outline for your introduction will help you prepare. It will also help your audience know who you are, why you’re an expert, and what to expect from your presentation.

Use this general outline for your next presentation:

• Welcome your audience and introduce yourself
• Capture their attention
• Identify your number one goal or topic of presentation
• Give a quick outline of your presentation
• Provide instructions for how to ask questions (if appropriate for your situation)

Use Common Language to Make Your Introduction Easy to Understand

Great, now you have the general outline of an introduction for a speech or presentation in English. So let’s focus on some of the key expressions you can use for each step. This will help you think about what to say and how to say it so you can sound confident and prepared in your English presentation.

“The introduction is the most important part of your presentation. It is the first impression you’ll make on your audience. It’s your first opportunity to get their attention. You want them to trust you and listen to you right away.”

Welcome Your Audience & Introduction

It is polite to start with a warm welcome and to introduce yourself. Everyone in the audience will want to know who you are. Your introduction should include your name and job position or the reason you are an expert on your topic. The more the audience trusts you, the more they listen.

• Welcome to [name of company or event]. My name is [name] and I am the [job title or background information].
• Thank you for coming today. I’m [name] and I’m looking forward to talking with you today about [your topic].
• Good morning/afternoon ladies and gentlemen. I’d like to quickly introduce myself. I am [name] from [company or position]. (formal)
• On behalf of [name of company], I’d like to welcome you today. For those of you who don’t already know me, my name is [name] and I am [job title or background]. (formal)
• Hi everyone. I’m [name and background]. I’m glad to be here with you today. Now let’s get started. (informal)

Capture Their Attention

For more information about how to best capture your audience’s attention and why, please see the next session below. However, here are a few good phrases to get you started.

• Did you know that [insert an interesting fact or shocking statement]?
• Have you ever heard that [insert interesting fact or shocking statement]?
• Before I start, I’d like to share a quick story about [tell your story]…
• I remember [tell your story, experience or memory]…
• When I started preparing for this talk, I was reminded of [tell your story, share your quote or experience]…

Identify Your Goal or Topic of Presentation

At this stage, you want to be clear with your audience about your primary topic or goal. Do you want your audience to take action after your talk? Is it a topic everyone is curious about (or should be curious about)? This should be just one or two sentences and it should be very clear.

• This morning I’d like to present our new [product or service].
• Today I’d like to discuss…
• Today I’d like to share with you…
• What I want to share with you is…
• My goal today is to help you understand…
• During my talk this morning/afternoon, I’ll provide you with some background on [main topic] and why it is important to you.
• I will present my findings on…
• By the end of my presentation, I’d like for you to know…
• I aim to prove to you / change your mind about…
• I’d like to take this opportunity to talk about…
• As you know, this morning/afternoon I’ll be discussing…

Outline Your Presentation

You may have heard this about presentations in English before:

First, tell me what you’re going to tell me. Then tell me. And finally, tell me what you told me.

It sounds crazy and weird, but it’s true. This is how we structure presentations in English. So today we’re focusing on the “First, tell me what you’re going to tell me” for your introduction. This means you should outline the key points or highlights of your topic.

This prepares your listens and helps to get their attention. It will also help them follow your presentation and stay focused. Here are some great phrases to help you do that.

• First, I’m going to present… Then I’ll share with you… Finally, I’ll ask you to…
• The next thing I’ll share with you is…
• In the next section, I’ll show you…
• Today I will be covering these 3 (or 5) key points…
• In this presentation, we will discuss/evaluate…
• By the end of this presentation, you’ll be able to…
• My talk this morning is divided into [number] main sections… First, second, third… Finally…

On Asking Questions

You want to be sure to let you audience know when and how it is appropriate for them to ask you questions. For example, is the presentation informal and is it okay for someone to interrupt you with a question? Or do you prefer for everyone to wait until the end of the presentation to ask questions?

• If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to interrupt me. I’m happy to answer any questions as we go along.
• Feel free to ask any questions, however, I do ask that you wait until the end of the presentation to ask.
• There will be plenty of time for questions at the end.
• Are there any questions at this point? If not, we’ll keep going.
• I would be happy to answer any questions you may have now.

Capture Your Audience’s Attention

Do you feel unsure about how to capture the attention of your audience? Don’t worry! Here are some common examples used in English-speaking culture for doing it perfectly!

Two of the most famous speakers in the English-speaking world are Steve Jobs and Oprah Winfrey. While Steve Jobs is no longer living, people still love to watch his speeches and presentations online. Oprah is so famous that no matter what she does, people are excited to see her and listen to her.

BUT, if you listen to a speech by Steve Jobs or Oprah Winfrey,  they still  work  to get your attention!

The don’t start with a list of numbers or data. They don’t begin with a common fact or with the title of the presentation. No – they do much more.

From the moment they start their speech, they want you to listen. And they find interesting ways to get your attention. In his most famous speeches, Steve Jobs often started with a personal story. And Oprah often starts with an inspiring quote, a motivational part of a poem, or a personal story.

These are all great ways to help your audience to listen to you immediately – whether your presentation is 3 minutes or 20 minutes.

Here’s how you can do it.

Like Steve Jobs or Oprah Winfrey, start with a:

• Personal story or experience
• Motivational quote or line from a poem or book
• Joke (be careful with this – make sure it translates easily to everyone in the audience!)
• Shocking, bold statement (Think of Steve Jobs’ quote: “ Stay hungry. Stay Foolish .”)
• Rhetorical question ( =a question that you don’t want an answer to; the focus is to make someone think)

And finally, consider audience participation. Ask a question and get your audience to respond by raising hands.

Get the complete Presentations in English Series:

Part 1: How to Prepare for Your Presentation in English

Part 2: How to Start with a Great Introduction in Your Presentation

Part 3:  How to Organize Your Presentation in English

Part 4:  How to End Your Presentation Powerfully

As I mentioned in the video, I have two question for you today:

• What is the best introduction you’ve ever heard? Have you watched a TED Talk or a presentation on YouTube with a great introduction? Tell me about it. What do you think was great about the introduction?
• What frightens you the most about preparing your introduction in a presentation? Share your concerns with me so I can help you overcome any challenges you have.

Be sure to share in the comments below to get feedback from me and to learn from others in the Confident English Community.

Have a great week! ~ Annemarie

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Good day Annemarie! you are truly a God sent, because I believe communication is your God giving gift. Your tone, facial expression and gesture is what capture my attention. I learn a lot with ease as I watch your videos each time. Keep it up! God bless.

Thank you so much for your kind comment. I’m glad to know my lessons are helpful.

Thank you, Annemarie. thanks for the generosity of sharing useful and systemative information and content.

This is really a very informative message thank you.. And it’s help me a lot

hi thank you for this It was helpful. You used simple english that i understood well.

How to start with a great presentation on composition

Thankyou for the information . It was much helpful . I will definitely use this information in my presentation 🤗

Hi, I am Thang Sok Do you have a Sample presentation?

This was helpful but can you please tell me how to start a presentation in college because this is for work in a company. My presentation is on laboratory skills and all that

Its informative

Thank you for this video! I’ve learned quite a lot and will want to use all these knowledge in presenting my thesis proposal in 2 months. About your question no. 2, I’d just like to share that the mere fact of presenting in front of many respected professionals makes me already nervous and shaky even if i have studied everything about my presentation. What do you think should i do to deal with my concern?

Could you give me advise, how to start learning English for beginner.How to prepare presentation on any topic and how to make interesting..

Thank u so much for valuable advice. Definitely I will used this in my presentation!!

Thank you very much for these kind of useful advice. I hope my first presentation will be exciting for the audience.Your video is helping me again thanks a lot 😊

hi, i’m B.COM student and I have to prepare presentation about identifying business opportunities. How to start and an attractive attention to my audience.. Please Help me…

very nise and educative piece of information thank you nancy nairobi kenya

i am starting a video speech shooting in night about a famouse person how do i start my speech with a good intro.

Hi again how do you do a introduction goodbye

Hi i do not know what you are talking about

Hi Kate, I’m sorry to hear you’re not sure about the content. I recommend reviewing the video carefully if you haven’t already. Is there something specific you have a question about?

thanks a lot for guiding in such an easier way.

Your write-up on introduction helped a lot, thank you Annemarie. I work for cross-geography team and greetings get lengthy as timezones are different e.g. “Good evening to those joining from US office and good morning to colleagues from India office”. I replaced that with “Thank you everyone for joining”. Is it okay?

Hi Amit, I’m so glad it was helpful. As for your greeting, both of your options are perfectly appropriate and friendly.

How to introduce group members in online presentation?

Great question! I’d love to use that for a future Confident English lesson.

its amazing. i can’t explain in wording. this material helping me a lot. i am so happy after use this website . its make easy for me preparing my presentation more interesting. i am thankful too u.

thanks! i use your materials to teach my students(clinets) how to prepare a presentation. is it ok to use them on my materials?

Hi! I am a student from the USP from Tuvaluan and i take CEE45 so our assessment 2 is to prepared a group presentation and we presented in school. so need your help for how to start an attractive introduction to my teacher and my fellow students, they already kwow me.

Thank you.. very helpful

Very useful

It was very use Gul for or presentations

Hi. I am a 1st year BIT student and I have to prepare a presentation on 3D Printing. how to start an attractive introduction to my teachers, when they already know about me? Can you please help me out? Thank you.

I just took 1st place for my paper that I presented at an international students conference. I used a lot of your techniques to improve my speech and I have no words to say how grateful I am to you. Keep up the good work!

😲WOW!! That’s awesome, Andrew. 🙌Congratulations on your presentation. What a wonderful response to your hard work. I’d love to know what you presentation was about. And thank you for sharing your new here. I’m thrilled to know that my techniques were helpful to you.

The title of the presentation was “Handling burnout: A study regarding the the influence of job stressors over military and civilian personel”. I can sent you my paper through email if you would like to see it.

Hi Andrew, what a fascinating topic. And it’s interesting because I just had a newspaper reporter interview me about burnout as a small business owner. Must be a hot topic. 🙂 And sure, I’d love to see it.

🔥❤ too goodd

Hello Annemarie, Thank you so much for one of the best content on the English presentation, I’ve seen. I have a question: Is it impolite or informal to start the presentation without a greeting? I’m asking this question because I’ve seen a lot of TEDTalks and in only a few of them, they greet the audience and in most of it, they quickly go to the “CAPTURING the ATTENTION” with numbers and pictures. I would be so thankful if you could answer this question as soon as possible, my presentation is so close. Best regards, Helia

Hi Helia, What a great question. It has definitely become more common to skip the greeting and go straight to capturing the attention of the audience and you’re right that we often see this in TED talks. I would say it’s best to know your audience and what might be expected. For example, at more formal, traditional conferences or lecture, it might be more appropriate to start with a welcome. I prefer to welcome/thank my audience quickly at the start when I give presentations. A welcome can be very brief, just one sentence, and then you can quickly go into …  Read more »

Hi Annemarie I would like to thank you for giving such types of presentation skills but I have a question can you give me some idea about vote of thinks.

I’m glad the lessons are helpful to you. Could you clarify what you mean by ‘vote of thinks?’ I’m not sure I understand that.

Please can you give me some idea about vote of thanks

Could you clarify what you’re asking for, Bello?

Thanks a lot

Glad it was helpful!

it is agood i learn alot from this english class

Hello.i would like to thank you for giving these beautiful tips to start a presentation.This article helped me a lot.

That’s great, Radha. Glad to hear it.

Thanks for your article. It’s simply for interpersonal skill development.

You’re welcome, Mithun. Glad to know it was helpful.

Hi Annemarie . Thank you so much for giving such helpful guildelines it’s really gonna help me

I’m glad it’s helpful, Swetha! 🙂

thank you for help me

You’re very welcome!

Hi Anne Marie, i ‘m from Catalonia and i came across with your site only by chance and i think it’gonna be so helpful for me to pass the next test for c1 level. Several weeks ago i did some rehersals with my presentation and i was so nervous and terrified about what was expected from me.

Some tips in your youtube channel are so cool !!! Thank you.

Hi Tom, I’m thrilled you’ve found this site in your preparations for your English exam and am glad to know it’s helpful! Best of luck as you continue to prepare.

Hi Annemarie Thanks it’s so useful to develop presentation skill. Fatima

You’re very welcome, Fatima! I’m glad it was helpful.

Awesome, especially this simple and clear motto: “First, tell me what you’re going to tell me. Then tell me. And finally, tell me what you told me.” This three sentences exactly explain the content you need to create a memorable presentation.

Hi Dzmitry,

Yes, I’ve always loved that simple motto on how to do a presentation. 🙂 It’s so easy to remember and tells you exactly what to do.

hello I need to introduce myself to language center. i am going to learn Danish Language and i want to introduce myself to them and i am little bit nervous because my grammar is not good at that level.so will you please guide me how to introduce myself to them with an example. i did go through your examples but that is for professionals and i am just a student (Graduate). I don’t have any experience . Please guide me how to do it.

I was in a confused state about starting a conversation and proceeding in it but when I read the guidelines you mentioned above I became confident. thank you for your innumerable ………….

Thank you so much…… it’s an excellent topic, and it helped me a lot

I’m so glad this was helpful to you! Thank you for sharing.

hi annemarie i have a few questions about a speech i have to make a englishi speech of what i want to become can you help me?

Hi Rebecca,

Thank you for the question. I have several lessons on the topic of presentations in English . However, for personal assistance with English or presentations, I only do that through my one-on-one classes .

thank you so much…… it’s really helpful for me….

You’re very welcome, Shalini.

Thanks its really nice to develop the presentation skills

Awesome. I’m glad it was helpful to you, Mohammed.

I have to give a demo on one of your programs next week. I would like you to check my self introduction – Good afternoon everyone and thank you for all of your presence. Before we get into the session I would like to quickly introduce myself. My name is Dinesh . I am working as a Pharmaceutical sale and promotion of the brands for Arrient Healthcare. I am in this filed for the past ten years. Before becoming trainer I worked as a medical representatives for different pharma company . I am highly interested in learning from people and …  Read more »

Please ignore my previous comment. Yea the demo was a success. So hereafter I will say”I have been in this field for the past four years. Actually I worked for different consultancies so I didn’t include an article there.

I have to give a demo on one of your programs next week. I would like you to check my self introduction – Good afternoon everyone and thank you for all of your presence. Before we get into the session I would like to quickly introduce myself. My name is Monica. I am working as a Soft Skill Trainer at Synergy School of Business Skills. I am in this filed for the past four years. Before becoming trainer I worked as a Recruiter for different job consultancy. I am highly interested in learning from people and I think teaching/training is …  Read more »

Thank you for sharing your example! One note: “I am in this field for the past four years.” –> Don’t forget, when we’re talking about something that started in the past and continues to now, we use the present perfect. How might you change this sentence to fix the grammar?

Also, we want to add an article to, “… I worked as a recruiter for [a] different job consultancy.”

I wish you much success in your demo this week! Best, Annemarie

Yea the demo was a success! So hereafter I will say”I have been for the past four years. Actually I worked for different consultancies.

Join Annemarie for an English Fluency Breakthrough . Available now.

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• Presentations

How to Sequence Animation Order in PowerPoint

• Bahasa Indonesia
• العربية/عربي

Animation effects add a dash of style and flair to every slide. But you may find yourself wanting to change the order that they appear in. Let's learn how to change animation order in PowerPoint to do just that.

Animation sequence in PowerPoint helps you set the pace of your presentations. And fortunately, it’s easy to work with. In just a few steps, you can change the sequence of animations in Microsoft PowerPoint.

In this tutorial, you’ll learn how to change order of animations in PowerPoint. Once you know how to reorder animations in PowerPoint, you’ll have more control over your slides. You can be sure each one looks its best and performs just the way you have in mind.

We also have a helpful complement to this tutorial. Download our FREE eBook: The Complete Guide to Making Great Presentations .  Grab it now before you read on. 

How to Change Order of Animations in PowerPoint (Video Tutorial)

Want to learn how to reorder animation PowerPoint slides? If you enjoy learning with a video, this fully featured guide is perfect for you. In this animation sequence video, you’ll learn everything you need to know to reorder animation PowerPoint decks. 

Check out our screencast on how to change order of animations in PowerPoint. We’ll use the Square Animated PowerPoint Template to illustrate. 

Want to learn how to change animation order in PowerPoint with written instructions? We've got you covered. Check out our illustrated guide below. You'll learn how to rearrange slides in PowerPoint, adjust animation sequence, and more.

Jump to content in this section:

Preview Existing Animations

Reorder animation powerpoint slides, change the animation start option, remove powerpoint animation effects, how to change animation order in powerpoint (quickly and easily).

Changing animation sequence in PowerPoint is fast and easy. It really opens up a world of new possibilities in your presentation design process. Adding and adjusting animation creates intrigue and holds the audience's attention.

Think of animations as setting the pace of your presentation. You can use them to introduce content in sequence, on cue. This gives you complete design control as you keep things on track when you present. Thanks to premium templates and the features of Microsoft PowerPoint, it’s easier than ever.

In this tutorial, we’ll use the beautiful premium Square Animated PowerPoint Template  from Envato Elements. It’s an elegant modern design with 120+ custom slides inside. Each one is pre-animated. This saves you time. And when you know how to change order of animations in PowerPoint, you can make each truly your own.

Now, let’s learn how to change order of animations in PowerPoint! They're totally flexible - even when you start with a premium template. It’s easy, and you’ll find yourself using these helpful features every day.

With the template open, let’s imagine a scenario on a given slide. This one has animations on it already. But you might have added animation effects of your own as well. Either way, our steps of how to reorder animations in PowerPoint are the same.

Before you remove PowerPoint animation effects or change the order, it’s a good idea to preview them. This way, you can see how animations are ordered. When you do, you can decide what changes you want to make.

To preview animations in PowerPoint, find the Animations tab on the ribbon. The ribbon is the series of menus across the top of your screen: Home, Insert, Draw, and more. The  Animations  tab holds most of the options to adjust object movement.

Click on Animations , and then click Preview on the far left. Watch as an animation preview plays. You’ll see every animation effect on the slide display, in their current sequence.

Now, let’s look at how to rearrange slides in PowerPoint to mix up the animation order. To begin, you’ll need to work in the Animation Pane. Think of the Animation Pane as the control center for animations in PowerPoint. In a single location, it lets you change the sequence, triggers, and more.

Working on the Animations tab in PowerPoint, click Animation Pane. You’ll see it launch, as a sidebar menu on the right side of your PowerPoint slide. Notice that the Animation Pane lists every animation on the slide.

They’re listed in the order they appear in. The small numbers indicate their sequence. Use these as your guide for animation sequence. For example, everything listed as “1” will start first. The effects on #2 start after, and so forth.

Here is where we change order animation sequences in PowerPoint. To reorder animation PowerPoint, simply click and hold down your cursor on a given animation from the list. Then, drag and drop it into a new position. You’ll see it change its position in line!

Don’t forget to click Preview as you work, ensuring your new sequence works the way you have in mind. You can move every animation effect as many times as you want. And you can always click Undo if you find yourself with an unwanted change.

Notice how multiple animation effects are sometimes grouped under a single number. This represents the start option that you have selected for those animations.

T ypically, PowerPoint animations default to starting On Click. That simply means that they trigger only when you click your mouse, cursor, or remote. But to streamline the flow of your presentations, it’s often useful to have animations start automatically. 

To change the animation start option, click on a given animation in the Animation Pane. When you do, you’ll see it shaded in orange. That means it’s the active selection that you’ll be editing. Then, with the Animations tab open on the ribbon, navigate to the Timing section. This is found on the right side of the menu, right above the open Animation Pane.

Click on the Start dropdown. This controls the order animation options. Here you will see three options for how to change the animation start option:

• On Click. This activates an animation when you click onto the slide with your cursor.
• With Previous . This starts one animation simultaneously with the animation effect before it.
• After Previous. This starts one animation immediately after the prior effect concludes.

As you click these options, you’ll see numbers appear and disappear in the Animation Pane . This shows you how you have each animation ordered. Use this menu as your guide while you learn how to change animation order in PowerPoint.

One last thing that I like to keep in mind: you don’t have to animate every single thing on a slide . In fact, this can often result in messy and distracting slide layouts. There’s nothing wrong with removing animation effects.

To remove PowerPoint animation effects, right-click on an animation in the Animation Pane. From the list of displayed options, click Remove . You’ll see it vanish from the list.

This is sometimes the best way to keep your slide designs tidy.

As you can see, it’s easy to reorder animation PowerPoint slides. The trick is to always use the Animation Pane. It gives you precise control over how order animation effects work. It’s quick, simple to use, and one of the most powerful tools that PowerPoint has to offer.

The Top Source for Animation Sequence PowerPoint Templates (With Unlimited Downloads)

Searching for powerful premium animation sequence templates for PowerPoint? Envato Elements is your ultimate source.

For a flat monthly rate, you can download and use as many premium PPT templates  as you want. With thousands of designs to choose from, it’s easy to find the perfect one for every project.

Explore PowerPoint Templates

Think of Elements as the ultimate creative resource today. Millions of digital assets are included in your monthly subscription. Along with PowerPoint templates, you’ll enjoy fonts, stock photos, graphics, and so much more. In moments, you can elevate your style and designs - no creative skills needed!

What are you waiting for? Join Elements today  and explore the vast library of content.

Learn More With Envato Tuts+ PowerPoint Tutorials

You’ve just learned how to change animation order in PowerPoint. As you can see, it’s an effortless process that’s both fun and simple. But order animation is only one of countless things that PowerPoint can do.

Want to learn more? Check out our vast library of helpful PowerPoint tutorials . These help you learn new skills, work more efficiently, and so much more.  For more on animation, dive into these great tutorials:

More Top Animation Sequence PowerPoint Templates (For 2023)

Searching for more amazing PowerPoint templates? Elements has thousands to choose from . Each have options that make it easier to learn how to reorder animations in PowerPoint. But with that many options, it can be really tough to decide!

To help out, we’ve compiled some of the very best premium PowerPoint presentation templates for you. All are available from Envato Elements today, for a flat monthly rate.

Make Great Presentations ( Free PDF eBook Download )

We also have the perfect complement to this tutorial, which will walk you through the complete presentation process. Learn how to write your presentation, design it like a pro, and prepare it to present powerfully. 

Download our new eBook:  The Complete Guide to Making Great Presentations . It's available for free with a subscription to the Tuts+ Business Newsletter. 

Reorder Animation PowerPoint Slides Today

You just learned how to change order of animations in PowerPoint. You also looked at how to change the animation start option, learned to remove PowerPoint animation effects, and more. These related skills give you the ultimate in creative control over your slides.

The key to saving time is to embrace premium Envato Elements templates that help you work more efficiently than ever. With templates, you can build animated PowerPoint presentations in no time. 

So, what are you waiting for? It's time to embrace animation. Reorder animation in PowerPoint templates today! You learned how to reorder animations in PowerPoint - now it's time to practice!

Editor Note : This post was originally published in October of 2017 by Andrew Childress . It's been completely rewritten for accuracy and relevance. A video has been added.

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Guide for Giving a Group Presentation

February 21, 2018 - Dom Barnard

In certain academic and business situations, it is more valuable to deliver a group presentation than a solo one. Many people prefer group presentations because there is less pressure on the individual. However there are also unique challenges, such as having to ensure multiple individuals collaborate in order to produce a cohesive piece of work.

Preparing for the group presentation

As with any presentation, there is a significant amount of work during the preparation stage. The group must be well organised because there are multiple individuals, and therefore multiple personalities involved.

Presentation moderator

To assist with organisation, the group should first decide on a presentation moderator – this is essentially the “leader”. The presentation moderator can have the final say when decision-making is needed and, during the Q&A portion of the presentation, can decide which speakers will answer certain questions.

Understanding the audience

To make your presentation engaging you need to  think about the audience  so you can tailor it towards their needs. How much will the audience already know about this topic? What will they want to get from this presentation?

For example, if you are presenting the topic of building a bridge to a group of civil engineers, you can confidently use technical language. However, if you are presenting to secondary school students, you would need to use simpler language and not explain the methods in as much detail.

The presentation’s purpose

As a group, ensure you agree on the purpose of the presentation so that you all understand the message that needs to be conveyed e.g. “We want to find out which treatment works best for social anxiety.” Deciding on your message means that the group can start building key points around this – just keep in mind that each subtopic must contribute to the presentation’s aim.

Divide the presentation

The presentation needs to be  divided into main areas  so there is a clear beginning, middle and end. This is where can you decide on the order of the subtopics. Presentations usually follow this structure:

1. Introduction:

• It is useful to agree on the first minute of the presentation as a team. This is because the audience should be interested from the start and convinced to listen.
• The presentation’s aims are also discussed and an overview of the presentation’s structure is provided. For example, “We set out to explore the effectiveness of different treatments for social anxiety. We will first cover the symptoms and prevalence of social anxiety, before explaining the different treatments. This will then lead into a discussion about the pros and cons of each treatment route. Finally, we will explain which treatment route we decided was the most effective for this disorder.”

2. One or two middle sections:

• These sections consist of providing the information that addresses your presentation’s aim.
• There can be more of these sections depending on your topic.

3. Conclusion:

• After summarising all of the key points, there must be a clear conclusion. It is beneficial to appoint the conclusion to the best speaker as this is where all the information is pooled together.

After segmenting the presentation, a time sequence can be created so the group understands the order in which tasks must be completed. It is important to set deadlines for this.

Share responsibility

A frequent problem when working within a group is unequal participation as this can subsequently cause disharmony.

But this is easily avoidable by assigning each speaker a section of the presentation to work on depending on their interests. This means that each speaker should be doing the research for their section and putting together a speech and slides (if being used).

• It is important to specify exactly what each group member should be doing with their time.
• Make sure the length of time per speaker is agreed on.
• Do not change speakers more than necessary because this can reduce the coherency of the presentation.

Build the presentation together

For an audience to follow and enjoy a presentation, it must flow together. Meeting up and building the presentation helps with this because:

• This prevents the duplication of content.
• You can put the slides together, although only one individual should be responsible for merging the slides so there is consistency within the presentation.
• It is useful to receive feedback on the speeches before presenting to an audience.
• The team can agree on any edits.
• The team can agree on the conclusion.
• You can make sure that each speaker will talk for the same amount of time and cover a similar amount of information.
• The team can come up with the first minute of the presentation together.

Use stories to engage the audience

A good presentation opening could  start with a story  to highlight why your topic is significant. For example, if the topic is on the benefits of pets on physical and psychological health, you could present a story or a study about an individual whose quality of life significantly improved after being given a dog.

The audience is more likely to remember this story than a list of facts and statistics so try and incorporate relevant stories into presentations.

Know what each speaker will say

Each speaker must know what the other group members will say as this prevents repetition and it may be useful to refer to a previous speaker to assist in explaining your own section.

Also, if a team member is unable to attend on the day it will be easier to find cover within the group.

Write and practice transitions

Clean transitioning between speakers can also assist in producing a presentation that flows well. One way of doing this is:

• Briefly recap on what you covered in your section: “So that was a brief introduction on what social anxiety is and how it can affect somebody”
• Introduce the next speaker in the team and explain what they will discuss: “Now Sarah will talk about the prevalence of social anxiety.”
• Then end by looking at the next speaker, gesturing towards them and saying their name: “Sarah”.
• The next speaker should acknowledge this with a quick: “Thank you Nick.”

From this example you can see how the different sections of the presentations link which makes it easier for the audience to follow and remain engaged.

Practice the presentation

Rehearse with the group multiple times to make sure:

• The structure works
• Everyone is sticking to their timing.
• To see if any edits are needed.

The more you  rehearse a presentation  the more you will feel comfortable presenting the material and answering questions as your familiarity with the content increases.

Handling nerves before the presentation

It is  natural to feel nervous  when presenting in front of others, regardless of the size of the audience. Here are some tips:

• Remind yourself that the audience is there to listen to you and wants you to do well; there is no need to be afraid of them.
• Remember that the audience members will have to present their projects later and are almost certainly feeling just as nervous.
• Practicing with your group and practicing your section at home will make you more comfortable and familiar with the material and increase your confidence.
• Practice pauses  – when people feel nervous they tend to find silences uncomfortable and try to fill gaps, such as using “um” multiple times (filler words). Practicing pauses will help the silences feel less unnatural when you present therefore reducing the need for filler words.
• When we are nervous we often begin breathing quickly and this in turn can increase our anxiety. Controlled breathing is a common technique that helps slow down your breathing to normal thus reducing your anxiety.

Exercises to control your breathing:

• Sit down in an upright position as it easier for your lungs to fill with air
• Breathe in through your nose and into your abdomen for four seconds
• Hold this breathe for two seconds
• Breathe out through your nose for six seconds
• Wait a few seconds before inhaling and repeating the cycle

During the group presentation

Introducing the team.

The presentation should begin with the presentation moderator introducing the team. This is smoother than each individual presenting themselves.

Pay attention to the presentation

You may feel nervous as you wait for your turn to speak but try to listen to the presentation. The audience is able to see the whole team so it is important that you look interested in what is being said and react to it, even if you have heard it multiple times.

Body language and eye contact

Body language is a useful tool to engage the audience:

• If it is your turn to speak then stand slightly in the foreground of the rest of your group.
• Smile at the audience as this will make you look more confident.
• Make eye contact  as this helps you engage with the audience.
• Keep your arms uncrossed so your body language is more open.
• Do not look down and read from your notes- glancing down occasionally is fine but keep in mind that you are talking to the audience.
• This is the same for  presenting visual aids ; you may need to glance at the computer slide but make sure you predominantly face the audience as you are still speaking to them.
• Keep your hands at your sides but use them occasionally to gesture.

Vocal variety

How you say something is just as is important as the content of your speech –  arguably, more so . For example, if an individual presented on a topic very enthusiastically the audience would probably enjoy this compared to someone who covered more points but mumbled into their notes.

Here are some pointers:

• Adapt your voice depending on what are you saying- if you want to highlight something then raise your voice or lower your voice for intensity.
• Avoid speaking in monotone.
• Sound enthusiastic – the more you sound like you care about the topic, the more the audience will listen.
• Speak loudly and clearly.
• If you notice that you are speaking quickly, pause and slow down.
• Warm up your voice  before a speech

Take short pauses and breath deeply. This will ensure you have more vocal variety.

Handling nerves during the presentation

• If you find that you are too uncomfortable to give audience members direct eye contact, a helpful technique is to look directly over the heads of the audience as this gives the impression of eye contact.
• Try not to engage in nervous behaviours e.g. shifting your weight or fidgeting.
• Remember that it’s unlikely that the audience knows that you are feeling nervous – you do not look as anxious as you feel.
• Notice whether you are speaking too quickly as this tends to happen when nervousness increases. If you are, pause and then slow down.

Strong conclusion

Since the conclusion is the last section of your presentation the audience is more likely to remember it. Summarise the key points and lead into a clear concluding statement. For example, if your presentation was on the impact of social media on self-esteem you could list all the main points covered in the presentation and conclude “Therefore, from the amount of evidence and also from the quality of evidence, we have decided that social media is negatively/positively impacting self-esteem.”

Questions and answer session

The questions and answers session after the main presentation can be a source of anxiety as it is often difficult to predict what questions will be asked. But working within a group setting means that individually you do not have to know everything about the topic.

When an  audience member asks a question , the presentation moderator can refer a speaker who has the relevant knowledge to provide an answer. This avoids any hesitant pauses.

If you are answering group presentation questions:

• Pause before answering- take the time to gather your thoughts and think about your answer
• Make sure you answer the question- sometimes you may start providing more information than necessary. Keeping answers as concise as possible will help with this.
• Ask the questioner for clarification if you do not understand- it’s better to ask rather than answering in a way that does not address the question.
• You’re not expected to know everything- challenging questions will emerge and if you do not know the answer you can respond with: “That’s a really good question, I’m not certain so let me look into that.”

Ending the presentation

A good ending usually consists of the presentation moderator thanking the audience. If there is another group afterwards they should transition to the next group.

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Best Practices for Online Presentations：The Ultimate Guide

Online presentations have become an integral part of our professional and personal lives, especially in today's digital age. Whether you're presenting to colleagues, clients, or a virtual audience, delivering a flawless online presentation requires careful planning, preparation, and execution. In this comprehensive guide, we'll explore the best practices for online presentations, covering crafting engaging content, essential tips, mastering virtual presentation technology, overcoming challenges, and advanced techniques to take your presentations to the next level.

Crafting Engaging Virtual Presentation Content

• Simplify Your Slides : Keep your slides concise, visually appealing, and easy to read. Use a clear, legible font size (at least 24 points) and limit the amount of text on each slide. Opt for high-quality images, charts, and graphics to support your key points and maintain audience interest.
• Use Visual Aids : Incorporate relevant images, videos, and graphs to break up text and make your slides more engaging. Ensure that all visuals are high-resolution and clearly visible to your audience. Use animations and transitions sparingly to avoid distracting from your core message.

Essential Tips before Deliver a Flawless Virtual Presentation

• Proper Webcam & Lighting : Invest in a high-quality webcam and ensure that your lighting is optimal to make a great first impression on your audience. Position your webcam at eye level and use soft, natural light to illuminate your face evenly, avoiding harsh shadows or back lighting. Proper lighting can significantly enhance the quality of your video feed. In addition, Position yourself facing a window for natural light or use a ring light or desk lamp to illuminate your face. Avoid sitting with a window behind you, as it can create a silhouette effect.
• Check Internet Connection : A stable and fast internet connection is crucial for a smooth virtual presentation. Test your connection speed beforehand and consider using a wired connection instead of Wi-Fi for better reliability. Have a backup plan, such as a mobile hotspot, in case of connectivity issues.
• Dress Professionally : Even though you're presenting virtually, dressing professionally can boost your confidence and make a positive impression on your audience. Choose attire that is appropriate for the occasion and avoid busy patterns or distracting accessories.
• Eliminate Distractions : Minimize background noise and distractions to keep your audience focused on your presentation. Close unnecessary applications, silence notifications, and inform others in your household about your presentation to avoid interruptions.
• Present in a Quiet Space : Find a quiet, dedicated space for your virtual presentation to minimize background noise and interruptions. If possible, use a room with a door that you can close and consider using a noise-canceling headset or microphone for better audio quality.

Mastering Virtual Presentation Technology

• Master the virtual presentation platform : Take the time to learn the features and capabilities of the virtual presentation platform you'll be using. Explore options such as screen sharing, chat, polls, and breakout rooms to engage your audience effectively.
• Test equipment : Before the presentation, thoroughly test your audio, video, and screen sharing capabilities to ensure a seamless experience. Check your microphone and webcam settings, and practice using the virtual presentation platform to avoid technical hiccups during the live event.
• Use Audience Engagement Tools : Incorporate interactive elements like live polls, Q&A sessions, and chat to keep your audience engaged throughout the presentation. Encourage participation by asking questions, seeking feedback, and fostering discussions.

Overcoming Virtual Presentation Challenges

• Managing Nerves and Anxiety : To manage nerves and anxiety, practice deep breathing exercises before your presentation. Take slow, deep breaths to calm your mind and reduce stress. Use positive self-talk and visualize a successful presentation to boost your confidence.
• Handling Technical Issues : Despite thorough preparation, technical issues can still arise. Have a backup plan in place, such as sharing your slides or notes with the audience in advance. Remain calm and communicate with your audience if you experience technical difficulties, and have a co-host or technical support on standby to assist if needed.
• Encouraging Audience Participation : To encourage audience participation, start by setting expectations and providing clear instructions on how to engage. Use icebreakers or polls to initiate interaction and create a welcoming atmosphere. Allocate dedicated time for Q&A and actively monitor the chat for questions and comments.

Advanced Virtual Presentation Techniques

• Using Body Language : Even in a virtual setting, body language plays a crucial role in effective communication. Maintain good posture, make eye contact with the camera, and use appropriate hand gestures to emphasize key points. Avoid fidgeting or making distracting movements.
• Varying Tone and Pace : Keep your audience engaged by varying your tone and pace throughout the presentation. Use vocal inflections to convey enthusiasm and emphasize important information. Adjust your speaking pace to allow for pauses and give your audience time to process the content.

Summarize the strengths and weaknesses of the presentation

• Collect feedback : Actively seek feedback from the audience through post-presentation surveys or sending follow-up emails. Let the audience share their thoughts, ask questions, and provide suggestions.
• Summarize and improve : Analyze the collected feedback. Summarize the strengths and weaknesses of the presentation. Incorporate valuable insights into future presentations to continuously improve your online presentation skills.

Delivering a successful online presentation requires a combination of technical proficiency, engaging content, and effective communication skills. By following the best practices outlined in this guide, you'll be well-equipped to navigate the challenges of virtual presentations and captivate your audience. Remember to invest in quality equipment, master the virtual presentation platform, craft compelling content, and engage your audience through interactive elements and storytelling. With practice and persistence, you'll become a confident and impactful virtual presenter, ready to tackle any online presentation with ease.  If you have any other questions regarding online presentations, feel free to leave a message. Additionally, you are welcome to share the online presentation skills. Meanwhile, if you find this article useful, please share it with your friends or on social media.

What are the most important technical considerations for online presentations?

The most important technical considerations for online presentations include:

Ensuring a stable and fast internet connection

Investing in a high-quality webcam and microphone

Familiarizing yourself with the virtual presentation platform

Testing your audio, video, and screen sharing capabilities before the presentation

Having a backup plan in case of technical issues

How can I make my virtual presentation content more engaging?

To make your virtual presentation content more engaging, consider the following:

Keep your slides concise and visually appealing

Use high-quality images, charts, and graphics to support your key points

Incorporate storytelling techniques to make your content more relatable and memorable

Use interactive elements like polls, Q&A sessions, and chat to encourage audience participation

Vary your tone and pace to maintain audience interest

What should I do if I experience technical issues during my online presentation?

If you experience technical issues during your online presentation, remain calm and take the following steps:

Communicate with your audience and inform them of the issue

Have a backup plan, such as sharing your slides or notes in advance

Seek assistance from a co-host or technical support team

If the issue persists, consider rescheduling the presentation or providing alternative means of accessing the content

How can I manage nerves and anxiety before an online presentation?

To manage nerves and anxiety before an online presentation, try the following techniques:

Practice deep breathing exercises to calm your mind and reduce stress

Use positive self-talk and visualize a successful presentation

Rehearse your presentation multiple times to build confidence

Ensure that you are well-prepared and familiar with the virtual presentation platform

Create a comfortable and distraction-free environment for your presentation

What are some advanced techniques for delivering impactful virtual presentations?

Advanced techniques for delivering impactful virtual presentations include:

Using appropriate body language, such as maintaining good posture and making eye contact with the camera

Varying your tone and pace to keep your audience engaged

Encouraging feedback and actively seeking audience input

Incorporating storytelling techniques to create an emotional connection with your audience

Leveraging advanced features of the virtual presentation platform, such as breakout rooms or whiteboarding tools, to enhance interaction and collaboration.

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Easily select non-contiguous slides in PowerPoint to efficiently manage and edit your presentations.

How to Select multiple slides in PowerPoint using keyboard shortcuts

Open your presentation.

Click on the First Slide

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The University of Chicago The Law School

Innovation clinic—significant achievements for 2023-24.

The Innovation Clinic continued its track record of success during the 2023-2024 school year, facing unprecedented demand for our pro bono services as our reputation for providing high caliber transactional and regulatory representation spread. The overwhelming number of assistance requests we received from the University of Chicago, City of Chicago, and even national startup and venture capital communities enabled our students to cherry-pick the most interesting, pedagogically valuable assignments offered to them. Our focus on serving startups, rather than all small- to medium-sized businesses, and our specialization in the needs and considerations that these companies have, which differ substantially from the needs of more traditional small businesses, has proven to be a strong differentiator for the program both in terms of business development and prospective and current student interest, as has our further focus on tackling idiosyncratic, complex regulatory challenges for first-of-their kind startups. We are also beginning to enjoy more long-term relationships with clients who repeatedly engage us for multiple projects over the course of a year or more as their legal needs develop.

This year’s twelve students completed over twenty projects and represented clients in a very broad range of industries: mental health and wellbeing, content creation, medical education, biotech and drug discovery, chemistry, food and beverage, art, personal finance, renewable energy, fintech, consumer products and services, artificial intelligence (“AI”), and others. The matters that the students handled gave them an unparalleled view into the emerging companies and venture capital space, at a level of complexity and agency that most junior lawyers will not experience until several years into their careers.

Representative Engagements

While the Innovation Clinic’s engagements are highly confidential and cannot be described in detail, a high-level description of a representative sample of projects undertaken by the Innovation Clinic this year includes:

Transactional/Commercial Work

• A previous client developing a symptom-tracking wellness app for chronic disease sufferers engaged the Innovation Clinic again, this time to restructure its cap table by moving one founder’s interest in the company to a foreign holding company and subjecting the holding company to appropriate protections in favor of the startup.
• Another client with whom the Innovation Clinic had already worked several times engaged us for several new projects, including (1) restructuring their cap table and issuing equity to an additional, new founder, (2) drafting several different forms of license agreements that the company could use when generating content for the platform, covering situations in which the company would license existing content from other providers, jointly develop new content together with contractors or specialists that would then be jointly owned by all creators, or commission contractors to make content solely owned by the company, (3) drafting simple agreements for future equity (“Safes”) for the company to use in its seed stage fundraising round, and (4) drafting terms of service and a privacy policy for the platform.
• Yet another repeat client, an internet platform that supports independent artists by creating short films featuring the artists to promote their work and facilitates sales of the artists’ art through its platform, retained us this year to draft a form of independent contractor agreement that could be used when the company hires artists to be featured in content that the company’s Fortune 500 brand partners commission from the company, and to create capsule art collections that could be sold by these Fortune 500 brand partners in conjunction with the content promotion.
• We worked with a platform using AI to accelerate the Investigational New Drug (IND) approval and application process to draft a form of license agreement for use with its customers and an NDA for prospective investors.
• A novel personal finance platform for young, high-earning individuals engaged the Innovation Clinic to form an entity for the platform, including helping the founders to negotiate a deal among them with respect to roles and equity, terms that the equity would be subject to, and other post-incorporation matters, as well as to draft terms of service and a privacy policy for the platform.
• Students also formed an entity for a biotech therapeutics company founded by University of Chicago faculty members and an AI-powered legal billing management platform founded by University of Chicago students.
• A founder the Innovation Clinic had represented in connection with one venture engaged us on behalf of his other venture team to draft an equity incentive plan for the company as well as other required implementing documentation. His venture with which we previously worked also engaged us this year to draft Safes to be used with over twenty investors in a seed financing round.

More information regarding other types of transactional projects that we typically take on can be found here .

Regulatory Research and Advice

• A team of Innovation Clinic students invested a substantial portion of our regulatory time this year performing highly detailed and complicated research into public utilities laws of several states to advise a groundbreaking renewable energy technology company as to how its product might be regulated in these states and its clearest path to market. This project involved a review of not only the relevant state statutes but also an analysis of the interplay between state and federal statutes as it relates to public utilities law, the administrative codes of the relevant state executive branch agencies, and binding and non-binding administrative orders, decisions and guidance from such agencies in other contexts that could shed light on how such states would regulate this never-before-seen product that their laws clearly never contemplated could exist. The highly varied approach to utilities regulation in all states examined led to a nuanced set of analysis and recommendations for the client.
• In another significant research project, a separate team of Innovation Clinic students undertook a comprehensive review of all settlement orders and court decisions related to actions brought by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau for violations of the prohibition on unfair, deceptive, or abusive acts and practices under the Consumer Financial Protection Act, as well as selected relevant settlement orders, court decisions, and other formal and informal guidance documents related to actions brought by the Federal Trade Commission for violations of the prohibition on unfair or deceptive acts or practices under Section 5 of the Federal Trade Commission Act, to assemble a playbook for a fintech company regarding compliance. This playbook, which distilled very complicated, voluminous legal decisions and concepts into a series of bullet points with clear, easy-to-follow rules and best practices, designed to be distributed to non-lawyers in many different facets of this business, covered all aspects of operations that could subject a company like this one to liability under the laws examined, including with respect to asset purchase transactions, marketing and consumer onboarding, usage of certain terms of art in advertising, disclosure requirements, fee structures, communications with customers, legal documentation requirements, customer service and support, debt collection practices, arrangements with third parties who act on the company’s behalf, and more.

Miscellaneous

• Last year’s students built upon the Innovation Clinic’s progress in shaping the rules promulgated by the Financial Crimes Enforcement Network (“FinCEN”) pursuant to the Corporate Transparency Act to create a client alert summarizing the final rule, its impact on startups, and what startups need to know in order to comply. When FinCEN issued additional guidance with respect to that final rule and changed portions of the final rule including timelines for compliance, this year’s students updated the alert, then distributed it to current and former clients to notify them of the need to comply. The final bulletin is available here .
• In furtherance of that work, additional Innovation Clinic students this year analyzed the impact of the final rule not just on the Innovation Clinic’s clients but also its impact on the Innovation Clinic, and how the Innovation Clinic should change its practices to ensure compliance and minimize risk to the Innovation Clinic. This also involved putting together a comprehensive filing guide for companies that are ready to file their certificates of incorporation to show them procedurally how to do so and explain the choices they must make during the filing process, so that the Innovation Clinic would not be involved in directing or controlling the filings and thus would not be considered a “company applicant” on any client’s Corporate Transparency Act filings with FinCEN.
• The Innovation Clinic also began producing thought leadership pieces regarding AI, leveraging our distinct and uniquely University of Chicago expertise in structuring early-stage companies and analyzing complex regulatory issues with a law and economics lens to add our voice to those speaking on this important topic. One student wrote about whether non-profits are really the most desirable form of entity for mitigating risks associated with AI development, and another team of students prepared an analysis of the EU’s AI Act, comparing it to the Executive Order on AI from President Biden, and recommended a path forward for an AI regulatory environment in the United States. Both pieces can be found here , with more to come!

Innovation Trek

Thanks to another generous gift from Douglas Clark, ’89, and managing partner of Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati, we were able to operationalize the second Innovation Trek over Spring Break 2024. The Innovation Trek provides University of Chicago Law School students with a rare opportunity to explore the innovation and venture capital ecosystem in its epicenter, Silicon Valley. The program enables participating students to learn from business and legal experts in a variety of different industries and roles within the ecosystem to see how the law and economics principles that students learn about in the classroom play out in the real world, and facilitates meaningful connections between alumni, students, and other speakers who are leaders in their fields. This year, we took twenty-three students (as opposed to twelve during the first Trek) and expanded the offering to include not just Innovation Clinic students but also interested students from our JD/MBA Program and Doctoroff Business Leadership Program. We also enjoyed four jam-packed days in Silicon Valley, expanding the trip from the two and a half days that we spent in the Bay Area during our 2022 Trek.

The substantive sessions of the Trek were varied and impactful, and enabled in no small part thanks to substantial contributions from numerous alumni of the Law School. Students were fortunate to visit Coinbase’s Mountain View headquarters to learn from legal leaders at the company on all things Coinbase, crypto, and in-house, Plug & Play Tech Center’s Sunnyvale location to learn more about its investment thesis and accelerator programming, and Google’s Moonshot Factory, X, where we heard from lawyers at a number of different Alphabet companies about their lives as in-house counsel and the varied roles that in-house lawyers can have. We were also hosted by Wilson, Sonsini, Goodrich & Rosati and Fenwick & West LLP where we held sessions featuring lawyers from those firms, alumni from within and outside of those firms, and non-lawyer industry experts on topics such as artificial intelligence, climate tech and renewables, intellectual property, biotech, investing in Silicon Valley, and growth stage companies, and general advice on career trajectories and strategies. We further held a young alumni roundtable, where our students got to speak with alumni who graduated in the past five years for intimate, candid discussions about life as junior associates. In total, our students heard from more than forty speakers, including over twenty University of Chicago alumni from various divisions.

The Trek didn’t stop with education, though. Throughout the week students also had the opportunity to network with speakers to learn more from them outside the confines of panel presentations and to grow their networks. We had a networking dinner with Kirkland & Ellis, a closing dinner with all Trek participants, and for the first time hosted an event for admitted students, Trek participants, and alumni to come together to share experiences and recruit the next generation of Law School students. Several speakers and students stayed in touch following the Trek, and this resulted not just in meaningful relationships but also in employment for some students who attended.

More information on the purposes of the Trek is available here , the full itinerary is available here , and one student participant’s story describing her reflections on and descriptions of her experience on the Trek is available here .

The Innovation Clinic is grateful to all of its clients for continuing to provide its students with challenging, high-quality legal work, and to the many alumni who engage with us for providing an irreplaceable client pipeline and for sharing their time and energy with our students. Our clients are breaking the mold and bringing innovations to market that will improve the lives of people around the world in numerous ways. We are glad to aid in their success in any way that we can. We look forward to another productive year in 2024-2025!